Rivers of Red
by Scribe
Summary: When Milton Fine used Red K on Clark Kent and brings the return of Kal, the consequences are dire when Kal releases Zod, using Oliver Queen's body as a Vessel. With Zod unleashed and Clark lost to them, it is up to Lois Lane to save the man she loves.
1. Chapter 1

RIVERS OF RED

PROLOGUE:

RESURRECTION

The Brain Interactive Construct had decided on the thing following the failed restoration of Zod in the body of Lex Luthor. The second attempt would only end in failure if the son of Jor-El was not neutralized permanently. Zod had ensured that its core matrix included a programming restriction that prevented the taking of Kryptonian life. Zod had not done this out of any altruistic desire to force any operating system into making such a decision but rather to ensure that his creation did not turn on him.

Thus simply eliminating Kal-El was not an option.

However, neither was letting him be.

As proved when Zod had ruled briefly on Earth, too much of Jor-El was in the boy and though he had no real connection to the planet of his birth, his father had chosen his carers well. The same disdainful tolerance of lower species existed in Kal-El making him prone to the manipulations of barely civilized hominids. It was not possible to use Kal-El as a vessel for Zod and despite the convenience of Lex Luthor; it would not be easy to approach the man as he had done before. Luthor was gullible once but the Brainiac construct suspected that he would not be so easily tricked again.

No, a new stratagem was required.

Following the defeat of Zod, it had watched the progress of Kal-El in his life. The Brainiac Construct watched Luthor's somewhat rapid descent into depths that made it question if Zod's influence had truly been vanquished or some residue of the General's spine been left in a previously flawed would be dictator. Luthor had great dreams but he had been conflicted. Whatever impetus has tipped the balance, its hold was almost entirely complete now.

Luthor was fast becoming Zod without even being aware of it.

Mildly impressed, the Brainiac construct offered no interference in Luthor's descent, though it was curious as to what had been the fulcrum of change. In the final analysis, it mattered little to the sentient program, it only served notice that Luthor would not make a suitable host. If nothing else, he might even be useful when Zod returned. The General was always quick to recognize natural talent.

The new face that appeared in Kal-El's life however, was another thing entirely.

He was in a position of power, he as affluent as Luthor and equally influential. One thing he surpassed Luthor was his physical excellence. While Luthor had been a prime example of human development, the construct new source of interest was even more perfect. Every muscle, every sinew and every thought had been honed to discipline. Furthermore, the specimen was considered a trusted ally of Kal-El, someone he would follow without question.

Someone, he would not suspect until it was absolutely too late.

_Goddamn Ollie, it's only been a couple of months since Lois and you're hung up over a blonde in fishnets. _

Oliver Queen or rather the Green Arrow frowned as he continued his stake out over the Star City docks, waiting for the shipment of drugs he knew would be transported off a Russian freighter sometime this evening. The ship had made an unscheduled stop in Santa Marta, Columbia just before entering the Panama Canal from Europe. It had taken several weeks of careful surveillance, bribes and information from contacts in the cocaine capital of the world for the Green Arrow to be in this place.

Once the ship was offloaded, the Green Arrow would follow the load back to its distributor in Star City and hopefully, when the money exchanged hands, he would be there as well to see where the trail ended. He wasn't interested in the small time operators, the dealers and the middle men, no the Green Arrow wanted whomever was in charge and the first rule of the game was – follow the money.

Of course it was easy to be distracted as he remained hidden on the roof, trying not to freeze his ass off despite how well insulated leather could be. It had been little over two months since he left Metropolis and even longer since a certain dark haired, Inquisitor reporter with a tendency to say the absolute wrong thing all time, had walked out of his life. He thought getting over her would be hard and had even insinuated a bit of brooding melancholy to his act. However, that whacko in Gotham had that act down and no one was going to say that the Green Arrow was a copycat.

However, that was before the blond in the fishnets.

She had come out of nowhere, collared the mugger he had about to take down. A flounce of golden hair and a smile that could make you forget your name and she was gone. Talk about POW right between the eyes, Oliver still couldn't stop thinking about her. Unfortunately, she was extremely elusive and his efforts to find her had come to nothing. Oliver, who prided himself in being able to find anyone, was unable to find the woman the newspaper was calling the Black Canary.

_Cute. _

So he was left to languish, hoping he'd catch a glimpse of her when he was out on patrol, behaving like some love struck schoolboy and completely forgetting that he was supposed to be heartbroken over …

_Lois. Her name was Lois, Oliver. _

Yeah her.

So far, nothing had happened at the docks and Oliver was starting to question whether or not he had his facts wrong. Maybe his contacts had been misled; maybe the freighter was exactly what it was. He considered maybe going on board, checking it out for himself just to assure his own piece of mind. He had gotten into places a good deal more secure than this. After some of the high-security fortresses he had broken into since the beginning of his career, it would be pretty sad state of affairs if the Green Arrow couldn't check out _one_ Russian ship.

"Want some company?" a voice suddenly said behind him.

Spinning around on his heels, with crossbow unslung and ready to fire in a blink of an eye, Oliver Queen aka Green Arrow, found himself looking up at the greatest pair of legs in fishnets he had ever seen. She wore knee high black boots, a black backless number and bolero jacket, looking at him with that smile that was capable of rendering him senseless. As it was, she was unknowingly the party to some pretty intense dreams.

"This is a good way to get yourself shot," he retorted, looking at her. His heart beating just a little faster. God, she was beautiful.

"No way," she said cockily, dropping to her knees next to him in his hiding place. "You're too good to have an itchy finger."

"You're just trying to be nice to me so I'll let you stay for this bust," Ollie maintained his cool persona and not because of his Green Arrow persona either. "This is my stakeout. Go find your corner of Star City to be a superhero," he teased.

"Am I that transparent?" She batted those gorgeous eyelashes at him.

"Well just in the legs," he smirked.

She uttered a soft laugh and Ollie sighed at that, great laugh too. Damn.

"Well can my legs buy me a spot next to the Green Arrow?" She asked. "My sources say that its not just drugs that ship is carrying."

He turned to her sharply, all business now. "What do you mean?"

"There's been a rash of child kidnappings in Bogota," she said smoothly, watching the ship closely. "Girls and boys between the ages of four and ten, ripe ages if you know what market we're talking about."

His jaw clenched. Yes he did know and the possibility of _that_ was more than enough for him to forget about the drugs and storm the ship right now. "If that's the case, we're not waiting."

"I thought you might say that," she said with a smile. "I haven't done anything this big before, I thought a partner would be nice."

"I didn't say we're partners," he returned. "You follow my lead and try not to get in trouble."

"Are you always this charming or is this something you're saving just for me?" The Canary asked, giving him a look.

"Must be the hair," he grinned.

"Well can we at least shake on it?"

"What are we in the schoolyard?" Oliver stared at her but extended his hand anyway. She was cute and had great legs; he could afford to cut her some slack.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him close, until their lips were almost touching. "We don't do this in the schoolyard," she whispered, drawing him close.

Blond. Fishnets. Oliver should have known better but he moved into kiss her anyway.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw her hand move, lightning fast. For a fleeting instant, he thought _Kent fast_. The hypodermic or at least he thought it was a hypodermic slammed into his bicep with enough force to penetrate the leather and impale skin in one strike. Ollie let out a groan of pain and looked up at the Canary in shock.

Except it wasn't the Canary. Right before his eyes, the girl vanished.

Instead, he was staring at a man with cheekbones so sharp they could draw blood. He opened his mouth to speak as the dark haze began to fall over Oliver's consciousness and said with a smile.

"You'll do."


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER ONE

"You really shouldn't have," Clark Kent said looking at the plate in front of him. "I mean with your job at the Inquisitor and working for my mom, we could have just ordered pizza."

Not to be fooled by the wince he was trying to hide as he stared at the dinner she cooked, Lois Lane stared at Clark Kent with a look of sarcasm. "Smallville are you impugning my ability to cook?" One brow arched in accusation.

"Uh…no," he said as he looked at the meatloaf she made. At least he thought it was meatloaf. "No I'm impugning my ability to eat it," he threw her a little smirk. Great thing about Lois, he could say whatever was on his mind and she took it pretty well most times, except when she didn't and then things were thrown, words were exchanged, the sofa was used and make out was had.

The pattern still hadn't gotten old for him yet.

Staring at the meal which she knew she had burned before he arrived at her apartment for Saturday night movies, Lois Lane had to concede defeat. Even she was having trouble trying to maintain a credible defense for her meatloaf. With a sigh, she had come to the decision that a lifetime of being fed by Martha Kent was something Lois would never be able to compete with.

"Oh just shut up and order the pizza," she tossed a napkin at him.

Clark grinned and scooted over to her side in an instant, wrapping strong arms around her waist as he pulled her close. "It was a nice thought." He flashed her that farm boy smile, the one she said she couldn't stay mad at before meeting her mouth in a kiss.

It was also the best way to shut her up too, he found.

"Yeah, yeah, use that charm to soothe my wounded feelings," she teased back as she more than happily received his apology.

The tingle that she felt all the way to her toes hadn't ceased even now. Whenever he kissed her, Lois had trouble remembering where she was. All she knew was that his kisses had power, at least over her. Losing herself in the taste of him, Lois parted her lips and allowed Clark fresh plunder, still somewhat amazed that being with him could feel this good.

It was a feeling to which Clark could concur had he presence of mind enough to think. Right now, he just wanted to kiss her. Like the first time, Clark still marveled at how good it felt to kiss Lois, how her lips seemed made for him and every exploration, every sensual duel of tongues, heightened all the senses he had in his body. Clark couldn't remember wanting Lana this much and want Lois he did, _a lot_.

They would have continued like that until one of them made a move towards the sofa, forgetting all about the meatloaf, pizza or for that matter, the movies they were going to watch if not for the knock on the door.

"Chloe," Clark muttered, x-ray vision seeing the familiar blond behind the front door, "…and Jimmy. And Jimmy?" He pulled away and stared at her. "Jimmy's here too?"

Regaining her composure after that abrupt ending kiss, Lois blinked a couple of times to remind herself she was on planet Earth again (not Krypton), before responding, "don't start with me Smallville. Chloe likes him a lot and anything that makes Chloe a little happier about you and I dating, is something you're going to put up with, kapishe?"

"Got it," Clark agreed, just about willing to do anything to not make this awkward for Chloe.

"Besides," Lois said walking towards the door, "she really wants you to like him. I know Jimmy's a little bit of dweeb but he means well, he makes her happy and he's a lot less high strung knowing that you're not after his girl."

"I was _never_ after his girl…" Clark rolled his eyes.

"A fact that Chloe is painfully aware of now 'Mr. Equipped with all Kinds of Senses except the Obvious'," she threw him a wink.

"Why am I dating you again?" Clark grumbled good naturedly as he listened to her ramble on.

"Because I French kiss like a demon and am known to give great blow…."

"OKAY," he stopped her there. "I'll go order the pizza."

"Now you're talking," she laughed, delighting in that wonderful shade of red across his face.

For the first time in God only knew how long, Clark Kent was happy.

If anything had convinced him that he had made the right choice with Lois, it was the last month since they started dating. Being with someone to whom he didn't have to lie to, who knew his secret without being bombarded by accusations of dishonesty was a weight off his shoulders. Although the talk about how he acquired his powers was a bridge coming they would soon have to cross, not talking about it hadn't hurt his relationship with Lois at all. As they agreed from the first, right now was about getting to know each other as a couple.

The rest of could wait.

Besides, she knew about the parts that kept him from lying to her on a daily basis, especially when he had to disappear to go track down a lead on a meteor freak or a Zoner. If anything, like Chloe, Lois was learning to cover for him when he had to make these quick exits. There were times when Clark wondered if Lana would have been able to manage as well as Lois was now but that was a question, he kept asking himself less and less the more his relationship with the intrepid Miss Lane deepened.

To his surprise, neither Martha nor Chloe had been terribly surprised by the change in status quo in their relationship. Martha just wore that smile, the one that told Clark she was basking in some secret victory she was not about to explain to him. Clark had the oddest feeling that Martha had seen this coming for some time now. It was Chloe's reaction however, that concerned both he and Lois the most.

He and Chloe had history.

Clark couldn't deny the mistakes he had made there, the opportunities lost. However, his consciousness had been so filled with Lana these last six years; he hadn't really been able to think of much else. He supposed if there had been a window of opportunity for him and Chloe, it had passed long ago. Sometimes Clark regretted it because he knew she loved him and other times, he didn't because any romantic aspirations towards Chloe was little more than curiosity.

Chloe deserved better than that. Clark may not have loved her romantically but he _did_ love her in his own way. She was his best friend and confidante. The one friend who knew the truth and had stood by him through the worst of times. And whoever took her heart had better make her happy. In this Clark wouldn't abide anything else for her.

Even if it was Jimmy.

Chloe had taken it in as easily as Martha and though she didn't say it out loud, Clark got the feeling she too had sensed something and once again, he had to wonder what everyone saw that had escaped him and Lois for so long. In any case, Chloe seemed happy that he wasn't pining over Lana and was even more thrilled that Lois knew his secret since that meant she didn't have to deceive her favorite cousin either. That did leave a sour taste in his mouth however, knowing that in keeping his secret, he made others lie for him too.

At least with Lois knowing, that was one less person in the world who needed to be lied to.

By the end of the evening, after three boxes of pizza, Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen did find some common ground. They both knew that women should never be allowed to go video stores on their own. After being subjected to Failure to Launch and The Break Up in one sitting, Clark decided that it was the closest to hell he had been in a long time.

And he had been in the _Phantom Zone_.

"We are so picking the movie next time," Jimmy declared. "I suddenly need to watch Die Hard again." He threw Chloe a smile.

"And here I thought you were a sensitive guy," Chloe nudged him in the ribs as they lounged on sofa.

"I am sensitive but I also like gratuitous make believe violence," he grinned and kissed her button nose.

"Well hang around in Smallville long enough and you'll get to see the real stuff," Lois remarked, throwing Clark a smirk. "You've come to the Town of Weird."

"Yeah ask Chloe," Clark threw his best friend a wink, "she made a career of it on the Torch."

"The Torch…" Chloe mused. "Oh my god, that almost feels like a lifetime ago."

Clark had to agree, remembering those days when the most he had to worry about was how to run into Lana in the school halls without tripping over his size 12 feet and trying to convince his dad to let him play football. There were times when he yearned for those day and others like today, when it wasn't so bad to be him, that he wouldn't trade what had now for anything. Instinctively, he leaned over and planted a soft kiss behind Lois' ear.

"So CK, when are you going back to college?"

_CK_, Clark grit him teeth slightly. "Uh not for awhile yet," he answered. Clark had no intention of enrolling in anything until the last of the Zoners were locked away. College could wait. "The farm still needs work."

"Can't stay out there forever," Jimmy barreled on. "You don't seem like the type to get stuck playing Farmer John for the rest of your life."

Chloe winced at the comment knowing just what association Clark would make as he shot Jimmy a look. Telling himself not to get annoyed, Clark tried not to equate the Farmer John comment with Jonathan Kent.

"Jimmy," Chloe stood up, "I think it's about time we got going." She said grabbing him by the hand. "We got an early start the next morning."

"Yeah good call," Lois retorted, wondering if she was _this_ tactless. Hopefully Chloe would clue Jimmy in on what he said later. "I'm going to Topeka with Mrs. Kent in the morning." She made no move to leave Clark's embrace however.

"Sure," Jimmy replied, oblivious to any wrong doing. "We should do this again CK. Next time _we_ pick the movies. How do you girls feel about Texas Chain Saw Massacre," he grinned.

Great, Clark thought with a sigh, more blood and gore. Like he didn't live this already.

"You were good tonight," Lois smiled at Clark stood at the door some time later, preparing to head back to the farm. "I know Jimmy can be a bit of a pain but you see how happy Chloe is."

"Hmmm…" Clark grumbled. "She can do better."

"Don't be a pill Smallville," she eyed him critically. "Not everyone can be as lucky as you to get me." She smirked.

"Yeah I'm a fortunate guy," Clark snorted and got hit for his trouble.

Lois was at her most exciting when she was irritated. Picking fights with her was worth the fun just to make up. Even though their sexual relationship was still at the make out stage, Clark didn't see any need to push and Lois seemed comfortable with the pace. They were getting to know each other and with his powers, he rather let things develop naturally although the urge to stay over one night was becoming harder and harder to resist.

"I'll make breakfast if you show up early enough tomorrow," Clark said pressing into her as they stood at the doorway, his lips not quite making contact with hers.

"That sounds like a plan," Lois smiled and claimed his mouth for a goodnight kiss. She couldn't get enough of those generous lips.

Clark let her take the lead for the moment, never realizing how exciting having an aggressive partner could be. Lois knew what she wanted and wasted no time in telling him. It took a lot of the guess work out of the equation and gave him the freedom to surprise her now and then. Five minutes of lusty kissing by her door and Clark had to pull away or else he was not going home at all. He watched her lick her swollen lips when they pulled apart and felt his own head swimming.

"Night Smallville," Lois said finally, breathless.

"Night Lois," he grinned, getting out of there while he was still capable of making that decision.

It wasn't that late when Clark arrived home some five minutes later but he was surprised see a light emanating from his loft. Speeding into the barn and up the stairs, Clark was rather surprised to see a familiar face sitting at his study desk apparently waiting for him.

"Oliver!" Clark said with a smile of genuine pleasure. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in Metropolis and I thought I'd drop by and say hi," Oliver stood up from the desk and met Clark in a handshake. "Since you weren't around, I thought I'd wait a bit before I head back."

"Oh," Clark suddenly realized that he and Oliver had some talking to do, about Lois. Clark wouldn't feel it right to conceal from Oliver that he and Lois were an item. While not something he was eager to do, Clark wasn't about to lie about that either. "I was at uh….."

"Its okay Clark," Oliver gave him a look. "I know about you and Lois."

Blue eyes fixed on Oliver's green. "Oliver…"

"Clark," Oliver shrugged. "Why Lois and I broke up had nothing to do with you and I appreciate that you waited until after I left to make a move on her. A lesser man would have taken advantage long before that. I'm okay about it and I wish you both the best."

Clark felt a sliver of guilt because Oliver's break up with Lois had a great deal to do with him. It didn't help that Oliver was being so gracious about it either. Still, Clark couldn't deny that he was glad that Oliver didn't hold any grudges. The man's friendship meant a lot to Clark.

"It just kind of happened…" he felt the need to explain.

"It can be like that," Oliver agreed. "Especially with Lois."

"She gets under you skin before you know what's happened," Clark mused, turning his back to Oliver, "and then she's…"

The pain came so sharply against his flesh that Clark who had not much tolerance owing to his rare encounters with it, cried out and was driven to his knees when he felt something sharp penetrate the nape of his neck. Spinning around, he saw Oliver Queen standing with a faint smile, holding the same Kryptonian device that Milton Fine had used to extract the silver kryptonite from his body a year ago.

"Hello Kal-El." Oliver greeted dispassionately just before his features melted like wax and he was no longer Oliver Queen but Milton Fine.

"What have you done…?" Clark started to say when the world turned red and the Brainiac Construct watched as Clark Kent disappear with a flash of crimson eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER TWO

Lois arrived at the Kent Farm early the next morning expecting breakfast but only found Martha looking at her with a bemused expression when she walked into the kitchen through the backdoor. The lady was already dressed in classic business suit sipping coffee at the kitchen counter was Lois breezed in expecting to be greeted by Clark and was mildly disappointed when she saw no sign of him.

"Hello Mrs. Kent," Lois greeted in her usual cheerful manner.

"Good morning Lois," Martha smiled, surmising that the reason Clark's bed had not been slept in was the reason Lois was here bright and cheery. Unlike a few years ago when she had caught them both in the bathroom, Martha was more at ease with Clark's sexual activities in recent times. The boy was 20 after all and what Martha deemed to be a consenting adult. Furthermore, he had shown respect enough to conduct his dalliances outside the home so Martha's ability to deal was vastly improved.

And there was also the fact that the lady was delighted that Clark was finally over Lana and not pining for her in his loft like he had done since the young woman had taken up with Lex Luthor. It grieved her to see Clark so wounded but it also concerned her that Lana had chosen to bestow her affections on Lex. When even Lionel was afraid of his son's ambition, there was good cause to be concerned. Unfortunately, Lana's situation with Lex was out of everyone's hands now and Martha was simply grateful that Clark had chosen to move on.

That he had opted to do so with Lois made her doubly pleased.

The girl was irascible, short tempered and downright abrasive at times but she was also strong, determined and capable of weathering quite a bit as was proved by how well she was handling her relationship with Clark and the secret they had spent years protecting. Furthermore, Martha didn't think she had seen Clark so happy in a long time and the surest way to win a mother's approval, at least as far as Martha was concerned, was to achieve that almost Olympian feat.

"Good night?" Martha asked coyly.

"Yeah," Lois answered, going to grab a coffee. She had been in the Kent home long enough to know that Martha had a 'help yourself' policy to frequent visitors like her. "It was fun though I think we might have scared the guys with too romantic comedies in one night."

"Well something must have left an impression if Clark's still there," the older woman smirked.

"Still where?" Lois looked at her blankly.

Martha lowered her cup. "At your apartment."

Lois stiffened. "Mrs. Kent, Clark left my place before twelve last night. He was supposed to make me breakfast this morning before we left. Isn't he here?"

"No," Martha stood up, "his bed hasn't been slept in and he isn't in the loft."

"Well I don't know where he could be," Lois said growing a bit alarmed. The Eagle Scout wasn't one to stay out all night and worry his mom, at least without even calling and last that Lois knew, he was on his way home.

Even though Martha said he wasn't in the loft, Lois felt compelled to look anyway and when she reached the top of the stairs that emptied into his favourite hideaway, she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was as it should be but something made Lois uneasy. Reaching into the folds of her own suit, Lois drew out her cell.

"Chloe," she spoke as soon as she heard her cousin's voice on the other end of the line at the Daily Planet. "Have you heard from Clark today at all?"

"From Clark? Not since last night, why?"

"He didn't come home last night," Lois said tautly, "Mrs Kent says he didn't sleep in his bed last night and since he wasn't in mine…"

"Lois!" Chloe exclaimed, half shocked, half amused.

"Well if he was in neither of those places, where the hell is he?"

"Let's get this over and done already!" Kal grumbled with a decidedly bored expression on his face when he came to a stop on the crystal floor of the fortress, a blizzard of snow behind him and Fine. "I got places to be, Lois to do. You said if I do this I wouldn't have to hide who I was and get everything I wanted." Kal glared at the being who still wore the guise of Milton Fine.

The Brainiac construct was rather impressed by the remarkable change in personality that had come over Kal-El once he had injected a concentrated mix of red kryptonite particles in the boy's blood stream. He had anticipated a more malleable personality, not this radical aberration that seemed to surface the boy's baser instincts and increased Kal-El's arrogance and confidence for that matter a thousand fold. Like an animal at the top of the food chain, the boy was recognising how insignificant the human on this world were to him.

It was most encouraging.

"Have patience Kal-El, your primitive mating rituals can wait," Fine remarked going towards the console. By the looks of it, it had been repaired since Zod's last resurrection and the sentient program made a note not to destroy this time around. Despite its links to Jor-El, the fortress was still best repository of information left of Krypton and Zod would need access to the technologies of that dead world if he were to rule this very live one.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one who hasn't been laid in a year and since I'm the only one who can do this, I say move your ass and do this thing already. I got better things to do with my time." Kal grumbled brushing the snow from the shoulder of the leather jacket he had liberated on the way here, as he joined Fine at the control panel. He did not like being in the Fortress. Every time he came into contact with anything remotely to do with Jor-El or Krypton, it usually ended badly.

"Clark…" a voice suddenly spoke up, reacting to all the noises around him.

Kal lifted a brow at the Construct and walked around the control panel to see Oliver Queen lying against the icy floor. Still clad in his Green Arrow leathers, the human was shuddering but was not quite dead, even thought here was thin layer of ice against his skin. Listening closely, Oliver's heart was still beating strongly. "This is who you picked?" Kal broke into a grin and started laughing. "_Good_ choice."

"He's your friend, you liked him." The Construct pointed out indifferently as he stood by the crystal matrix and let his fingers melt into thick rivulets of black oil that seeped onto a flat bit of surface near the protruding crystal shards. Instead of flowing like liquid, the oil held its form and began to harden, taking on a shape not unlike one of the shards in the matrix.

"He's alright," Kal shrugged, recalling a little of the camaraderie he felt for Oliver even if it was a fleeting sensation. "Bit self-righteous ass though. Actually," he sniggered. "The irony is kind of sweet."

"Clark," Oliver tried to sit up, speaking through chattering teeth. "What's going on? Where are we?" Green eyes darted around the strange structure in a mixture of puzzlement and worry.

"You're at my place Oliver," Kal said zooming next to Oliver and dropping to his haunches to look at the man. "Man, you look like hell."

"It's below freezing," Oliver spat, sensing he was in danger because the eyes he was looking into belonged to a stranger. "What the hell's going on?"

"I'm about to give you what you want Oliver," Kal grinned. "You said I had powers you could only dream of right? Well Ollie, this is your _lucky_ day," he slapped Oliver on the back laughing. "After this, we're going to change the world, not necessarily the way you wanted but it's gonna be a hell of a ride."

"Kal-El," the Brainiac construct beckoned. "It's time."

Oliver knew he had to get up. Clark's manner was not only unnerving, it was seriously starting to frighten him. However, as fast as he tried to move, he couldn't compete with the Smallville farm boy was standing next to the collection of glowing white crystals in a blink of an eye. If it was just Clark standing there, Oliver would not have been as concerned because as peculiar as his behaviour was, Oliver still saw Clark. His friend.

However, from the day he had met Clark Kent, the secret of his origins and his powers had been an anchor around they boy's neck that tainted his relationship with almost every person in his life. Clark held onto that secret because his very existence depended on it and to see him now, revealing all to a stranger than Oliver did not recognise, reeked of catastrophe.

"Oliver you're about to take centre stage," Kal grinned and nodded at the Construct. "Do it."

The cold that he should have been feeling had vanished as Oliver Queen's heart rate began to pound. Whether by design or sheer anxiety at what was taking place, he did not know. What he did know was that he stood on the edge of darkness and his friend, was pushing him over. As the stranger picked up the black crystal shard that had finally reached completion, he placed the thing Clark's outstretched palm.

Oliver wasn't certain what was about to happen but he knew that he played a part in it he neither understood nor by the sounds of it would like. Gaining strength by the second, Oliver abandoned the idea of reaching Clark because he didn't know if it was at all possible and he far too vulnerable like this. A strategic withdrawal was necessary until he had more facts. However, no sooner than the thought had crossed his mind, Clark's companion raced across the uneven crystal floor and grabbed Oliver before he even had a chance to blink.

"Come along Mr. Queen," the man spoke and lifted Oliver like he was weightless, hauling him to what looked uncomfortably like a sacrificial altar in white.

"CLARK!" Oliver shouted, realising that whatever Clark was, his friend was too and if such was the case, Oliver wasn't going anywhere. "WHAT"S HAPPENED TO YOU?"

"Relax Ollie," Kal called out as he held the dark crystal poised over the slot on the crystal matrix panel. "When we're finished, you'll never have to worry about anything. You can finally get over the fact that it was me Lois dumped you for." Kal smirked, unable to let that tasty morsel pass when Oliver was still himself to appreciate it. "All it took was _one_ kiss Ollie, just one kiss. You mustn't have been getting the job done but then Lois is like that isn't she? More than you can handle. When I'm done here, I'm gonna show her what's she missing."

Jesus Christ, Oliver's frantic mind thought as he was slammed against the altar. _He's insane._

"Clark!" Oliver tried one last time to reach his friend, "don't do this!"

Whatever this was.

The grip of the stranger who held him down was powerful and Oliver felt like he was held down by a tonne of bricks. He had never felt so helpless in his life.

"See you on the flipside Oliver," Kal called out. "Trust me, it's gonna be fun!"

With that, he slammed the black shard into its slot and ignited the matrix panel with angry red glow. A burst of blood red energy escaped the panel, column like in its width, streaking into the sky like a new born comet. The fortress glowed with red and the last thing that Oliver saw before he was bathed in crimson, was the exploding brilliance of what looked like a diamond floating in space.

Kal stepped back and watched everything that was Oliver Queen vanish with the arrival of Zod.

"Well I'm done," Kal announced to the Construct who was standing over the form though not necessarily the spirit of Oliver Queen. Slipping on a pair of aviator style Ray-Bans over his face, Kal stepped off the platform where the matrix stood and added. "Tell Zod to stay out of Metropolis and Smallville and we'll get along just fine, if not we're going to have a problem."

"Tell me yourself," Zod stood up wearing Oliver Queen's face. The General ran his hands over his face and observed his hands before pausing to look at his reflection in a shiny piece of crystal. Definitely an improvement on the last version.

"This is an interesting turn of events, Kal-El." The General turned to Jor-El's son, poised to attack the upstart who had banished him to the Phantom Zone, _again_.

"The name is Kal," Kal warned, his jaw clenching with just a hint of menace. "Are we going to have a problem here Zod? You might be a little more grateful since I'm the one who kind of let you out."

Zod glanced at the Construct, clearly taken by surprise at that revelation . "Is this true?"

"Yes General," the Construct nodded. "I could not have released you without the boy's help."

"Hey screw you," Kal retorted offended. "I'm not a boy."

"Indeed," Zod studied the young man with bemusement. He was ready to tear Jor-El's brat apart but Zod was never one to waste resources and there was something in his manner that made the General pause. "And how is it that you came to free me, _Kal_?"

"Your guy here said that if I free you, I get what I want." Kal admitted readily, watching Zod carefully behind his dark shades. Kal had memory enough of the past to know how dangerous Zod was but fortunately, these days so was _he_.

"Interesting," Zod's eyes shifted to the Construct and back to Kal again. "What is it do you want?"

"To not have to hide anymore," Kal declared firmly. "I'm sick of hiding what I am. I'm sick of pretending to be like everyone else when clearly I'm not. I'm a hell of a lot better than they'll ever be and its about time they knew it. I want to take what's mine and teach anyone who stands in my way, why it's a _bad_ idea to mess with me."

Zod laughed out loud aware that he would require some converse with the Brainiac Construct on how this miracle of personality had come about but for the moment, the opportunity to put a yoke around the son of Jor-El was too good to pass. It was almost poetic in its beauty.

"I'm going to take this planet Kal, I'm going to own everything and everyone on it. You can join me and be the Kryptonian that you _are_, not the weakling human you've been pretending to be and in return for your loyalty, you'll have everything that you've ever desired. Stand in my way again and the Zone will seem like a paradise in comparison to what I will do to you."

Kal stared at Zod and then laughed with similar amusement. "I'd like to see you try," the younger man said cockily as he swept his gaze over the fortress. "However, it does sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. You see I don't care if you want to rule world Zod, I _really_ don't. I just want my piece of it. You give me that and I'll swear allegiance to any _damn_ thing you want."


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER THREE:  
CALL ME KAL

Despite her fears for Clark, Lois managed to convince Martha to keep the appointment in Topeka, citing that while her staff could afford to be absent, the Senator herself could not. Promising Martha she'd do everything possible to locate Clark, Lois began the tedious job of telephone tag, calling everyone she could possibly think of for some clue to finding out what had happened to Clark after he left her place that night.

Meanwhile Chloe was using the resources at the Daily Planet to learn if perhaps Clark had taken off unexpectedly to deal with a Zoner. Lois wasn't entirely filled in on the whole Zoner issue and how it related to Clark but according to Chloe, it was the only thing that might explain why he would leave so abruptly without giving any leave about his departure. As the morning slipped into afternoon, Lois had started to get desperate, having left a message for Ollie at Star City, just in case. He and Clark had been friends when Ollie lived in Metropolis so it was possible that Clark might have turned to him if there was a crisis.

However, Oliver's private number did not pick up and Lois assumed he was probably jetting across the world somewhere on a business trip.

Lois was actually considering calling Lana when she heard the back door open from the living room of the Kent house.

Hanging up the phone and looking over the top of the comfortable sofa, Lois let out a sigh of relief when she saw Clark step through the door.

"Smallville!" Lois exclaimed as she met him in the kitchen, throwing her arms around him in relief that no harm had come to him. "Thank God, you're okay. Where have you been? Your mom said you didn't come home last night…"

"Hey," Kal said wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her hips firmly against his, "its okay, I had things to do."

"Things?" Lois stared at him. "What things?" She demanded, unable to believe he could be so blasé about it. "You've been gone all night!"

"You don't have to worry Lois," Kal said eyeing her down, taking in how good she looked in the suit she was wearing. "You know nothing can hurt me," he smiled lifting her chin up as he kissed her.

"Clark…" Lois tried to speak but opening her mouth only invited him to kiss her harder, until he was driving his tongue past her lips and walking her to the edge of the kitchen table, all the while his large hands ensuring she didn't get the chance to put any distance between them.

"Shh…" he said puling away long enough to meet her gaze with flecks of gold glistening with mischief in his blue eyes. "I'm here now Lois," he said huskily. "And we've got the house to ourselves."

"Are you crazy?" Lois balked, trying to pull away from him but it was a futile gesture, "you disappear all night, no explanation and now you come home and want to do it? What happened to waiting and getting to know each other?" She was trying to make sense of his behavior when she noticed what he was wearing.

Gone was the plaid. Every stitch of clothing on him was not only designer label but expensive, far more than she knew he could afford, Martha being a Senator not withstanding. Furthermore, Clark was never one for labels or for that matter, _fashion_. He was at heart a farm boy and she rather liked him that way. Although he looked utterly devastating in these new clothes, the leather jacket, expensive sun glasses in the pocket of his silk shirt was just not him. What was going on?

"Waiting is for losers," he gave her a look of impatience and promptly lifted her up and sat her on the edge of table. His hands were already unbuttoning the front of her jacket. "I don't want to wait any more Lois." He parted her legs and placed himself between them before claiming her mouth again. He plied her with hard, demanding kisses, sucking and nibbling her bottom lip before sliding his tongue past her teeth, exploring the sweet cavern of her mouth and drawing her unwittingly into this dance of dark lust.

Trying hard to maintain her composure, a difficult thing to do when he was kissing her with like this, Lois struggled to keep her thoughts from fragmenting with tantalizing whisper of black desire in her ears. Clark was grinding into her, until she could feel him through the fabric of her clothes, hard and absolute. He had touched her before but never like this. There was an edge to it, sharp like a knife, drawing blood which each surge of pleasure she felt.

It was like she was drowning in it.

"Smallville…" she spoke, trying once more to grab hold of something tangible, to keep her anchored to the shore of reason. This wasn't right and somewhere, beneath the need for him, beneath the unbelievable sexuality he was pressing down on her like a great weight, Lois knew something was wrong.

"God I want to fxxk you Lois," his answer was a growl down her throat. "I want to fxxk the smug right out of you. I want the only thing to come out of your mouth is you screaming my name when you're coming around me."

Oh Christ, she thought feeling the ropes that kept her to shore snap with those raunchy words. She couldn't ever remember ever hearing anything so sexy in her life despite how brutal it sounded, despite how _not_ Clark it was.

Buttons came apart with his impatience and Lois felt the warm air of the afternoon brush over her shoulders like a lover's whisper before his hands were caressing the soft skin of her arms. There was still a bit of fight left in her because she was Lois Lane and no matter what she felt about Clark, there was an inherent need for her to never quite say die unless she could avoid it. In storm of moths that was in her head, Lois felt the need to resist.

Kal could feel her resistance beginning to wane. He wasn't surprised by this at all. Despite her protests, her claims of independence, he knew she wanted to relinquish control especially when it came to sex. Fiercely aggressive, the need to make her surrender completely to him was almost as powerful as his need to own her flesh. Unlike Lana, Lois did not need flowery words or weak displays of honesty. Stripped down bare, Lois was the very essence of primeval female instinct, driven to mate with the strongest of the pack.

"Clark…" she tried once more, really she did even though his mouth had left her lips and was sliding down her neck. She didn't have her jacket anymore and a less than a second later, she heard the rip of a t-shirt and the bra beneath, give way to Kryptonian strength. Turned on and hating herself for it, Lois saw him grinning at her before his head dipped and she was running her fingers through his dark hair when that beautiful mouth enclosed the tight bud of an rosebud colored nipple.

"Oh God," she whimpered, feeling him bite and tease. The tip of his tongue washed the hardened skin after each sharp bite, alternating between sharp pain and soothing pleasure. Her nails dug into his shoulder, suddenly gripped by the need to feel skin. Somewhere she heard her shoe drop to the floor from her bent foot. She heard the slow shift of leather as he freed himself of his jacket and then his shirt, not even bothering with buttons. As soon as she saw his flesh bare, Lois was dragging her nails down his bare back, trying to hurt him with the same mixture of pleasure and pain.

Continuing to bite and lick, Kal played a devastating game of foreplay on the fiery Miss Lane who was coming apart at the seams now that the right amount of pressure was applied. Enhanced senses drank in the scent of her arousal, the moist heat that was wafting in the air, escaping through the dampening patch between her legs. He was fully erect and digging into the core of her through thin layers of cloth, pushing and driving deeper between her legs.

Near senseless now, Lois abandoned the battle she had been trying so hard to win but what he was doing to her was beyond description, beyond the ability of any sane person to withstand. Oh she had wanted Clark so much before this; respecting his desire to take it slow but Lois found it hard to be slow about anything so physical, especially when he was so beautiful. The word Adonis had been made for Clark Kent but until now, she never really understood how much it suited him. His large hand was squeezing the breast not in his mouth with hard, unrepentant caresses, Lois closed her eyes and simply wallowed in the mire of her lust, no longer able to do anything but cry out his name.

"Oh God Clark.." she hissed as he bit down again.

Suddenly, he stiffened if only of a fraction of a second. His entire being seemed to pause and Lois was about to ask what was wrong when he withdrew both hand and mouth. Her eyes flew open to question this but she didn't have the chance to say the word as he flipped her onto her stomach like he was turning a read page of a book. Her chin bumped on the wooden surface when she heard more tearing and knew that her suit was completely ruined now.

Naked at Martha Kent's kitchen table, Lois couldn't even begin to imagine how forbidden this was.

She looked over her shoulder, through the tangle of dark hair in question when she saw his eyes. For a moment, he looked almost like he hated her. Lois wanted to ask what she had done but the question died on her lips when she was roughly penetrated by a finger that buried itself inside her all the way to the knuckle. Throwing her head back with a languid moan, she was held steady by the hip as he pumped one finger and then two, steadily into her body, using the damp he had so carefully cultivated to slide as deeply into her as he could.

_That shut her up_, he thought with a smirk and continued to finger her, giving her clit just enough attention so that she was pushing back into his hand, riding his digits for every ounce of pleasure they could make her feel. Her back was starting to glisten with moisture and her scent, oh hell, that heady mixture of sweat, perfume and feminine juices sent a jolt straight through his body and right up his cock.

This is what he had been craving for God only knows how long. Why on Earth hadn't he taken Lois this way long before now? Or for that matter, Lana? This stupid foolish fear he felt about hurting them when in truth, they wanted to be hurt.

"Say my name Lois," he breathed into her ear as he leaned over her, his fingers still continuing its sensuous assault. "Say my name."

"Cl…." She started to say and Kal shoved even harder, breaking the word in her throat.

"Not Clark," he growled with a hint of menace. "Kal."

"What…." She stammered, trying to regain some control despite the pleasure he was making her experience, the one that was pushing so closer to the edge.

"Say my name," he repeated. "Kal."

"I don't understand…" she breathed, confused now.

His anger mounted and his fingers deftly undid the zipper of his pants. Heavy and erect, his freed cock slapped lightly against the smooth skin of her ass. However, gentle was not in the cards.

"My name Lois," he ordered. "Say Kal."

"Your name isn't Kal," she nearly sobbed from the cessation of his hand. "Its…!"

His response was to drive himself all the way to the balls between the wet of her legs, giving no warning. Lois let out a sharp cry of pain and pleasure as he wrapped his hands around her hip and began pumping into her relentlessly. Her muscles were clenching in protest, surprised by the sudden intrusion but the raw sexuality of his penetration went a long way to feeding her arousal. She could feel the bruises beginning to form across her skin and knew that she would be wearing welts everywhere but Lois didn't care, she just didn't want him to stop.

And she was willing to say _anything_.

"Say my name," he said hoarsely, eyes clouding over in how good she felt, especially when she had been so unprepared at first. "Say my name and I'll do this to you all night…"

The pleasure of it. Oh God, the pleasure of it, she couldn't refuse him, not when he was fxxking her like this. Lois was pushing back into him, meeting his thrusts, until they were slamming into each other. She was biting down on a knuckle from the force of him but she couldn't say it. Something inside her wouldn't just yet. Lois wasn't quite there yet.

"SAY IT!" He demanded and rode her even harder.

Grabbing her hair, he pulled her back against his sweat slicked chest and captured her mouth in a deep, open mouthed kiss. A hand wrapped around her breast as he continued to thrust, feeling the climax he had not been able to share with anyone for almost a year building up to its conclusion. But not yet, not before he heard his name on her lips. From her breast, his hand slid down the contours of her fine, made for fxxking sinful body, before finding her clit through the mass of short, damp curls between her legs.

"Are you close baby?" he whispered in her ear, his voice was wet with lust.

"Yes," she almost sobbed. "God yes.."

"Then say my name and I'll take you the rest of the way," his voice became husky, tender even. "Tell me what I want to hear and I'll make you come all night."

"Oh god yes," Lois finally broke, unable to withstand the barrage of mouth, fingers and cock upon her senses. "Yes, oh please….oh please make me come…please….."

"Please _what_, " he teased, sensing triumph in her surrender.

"Kal! Make me come Kal!" She gasped, crying as he increased his thrust, pistoning in an out of her until she knew nothing else, couldn't take any more and splintered into a thousand fragments of broken will.

Kal smiled and pulled out then, turning her around and extracting another sob of disappointment as he blew everything off the table in one puff of breath. Plates, table cloth and cutlery landed noisily on the floor as Kal attacked her mouth again, lifting Lois up easily and returning her to the table top. This time, he joined her, hovering over, wanting to see her eyes when she finally surrendered to him.

Lois was disorientated, not just from the sex but also from what was going on. This was Clark and it wasn't Clark. Who the fxxk was Kal? She wanted to ask him that but the question was driven away by his cock slamming into her body again. Arching over the table as he buried himself all the way in, tender was obviously not in his vocabulary. He pulled almost all the way out and dove in again, repeating this torturous exercise until Lois' muscles were clenching at him hard like a lover's desperate embrace, trying to keep him inside her.

In perfect control, Kal fxxked Lois on the kitchen table, watching her face as she gave in to the pleasure he was making her feel. He used the cruder terminology because no other word would fit. This wasn't love making, this was him possessing the woman that belonged to him, to give her something else that would ensure she go to no one else without always wanting him and this. Not like Lana, who could discard him so easily and go with Lex. No, he would do to Lois what he should have done with dear sweet, fragile Lana.

Lois he would not lose, _ever_.

"Come for me Lois," he said in commanding tone because this was a woman who knew how to obey orders despite her mouth.

Hating herself for it because she was so very close, that husky demand sliced away the last bit of dignity she had left and Lois felt herself tipping over the edge into a blackness she couldn't even begin to concede.

"KALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" She screamed his name and as Lois Lane felt him explode inside her, spilling his seed into the core of her, somewhere even more remote was the horrible, horrible realization that she had made the worst mistake of her life.

This was Kal.

Clark was _never_ in the room.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FOUR

THE WORLD'S OUR OYSTER

Things were progressing well for Lex Luthor.

Despite the some minor set backs, his Section 33.1 project was back on track again and would be past the development stage in six months. He'd be ready for these 'Kryptonians' if they came back. Not if, Lex told himself, _when_. Too many of these aliens with unbelievable powers were appearing in his life lately and the last one had driven home the lesson that he needed to be ready for them. Dark Thursday still loomed in his mind like an ever present nightmare ready to happen again.

Watching the fire cackle in the fireplace, he took a moment to enjoy the present as he sat on the leather sofa, Lana Lang resting comfortably in the crook of his shoulder, watching the flames. If Milton Fine had wanted to know what fulcrum had turned Lex into the man he was now, the Construct needed to look no further than the young woman who had become the jewel of Lex's life. Every step that Lex had taken to his point was driven by the need to be with this girl who had brought down his principles like Helen of had brought down the walls of Troy.

He regretted some things, the dissolution of his friendship with Clark, the understanding that his father's teachings had been relevant to the man he wanted to be but these were minor and could not stand up to the weight of having her. She was carrying his child and poised to becoming his wife. There was even the added bonus of her tolerance to what he was doing, even if she didn't understand the full scope of it. Lex knew what he had sacrificed to have Lana Lang.

He just didn't know that the world would weep as well.

For now however, dark thought and evil futures were far away and he was with the woman he loved, holding her as they watched the fire burn, consumed in thoughts that neither would ever reveal to each other, living with the illusion of honesty. It was as close to perfection that Lex could expect.

Suddenly klaxons started screaming throughout the house. No sooner than Lex had reacted to the sound, doors burst open and his security team entered, brandishing guns as the lights around them died.

"What is it? What's happening?" Lana demanded, clinging to his arm even though they had both stood up.

"Mr. Luthor, we have a breach," Hawkins, the leader of the black, commando team explained. "We need to get you to the safe room now."

"What's the code?" Luthor demanded, wondering which one of his charges had escaped now.

"No code Sir," the man replied and Lex saw something that chilled his blood as gunfire broke out not far away. "He's not one…"

His sentence was cut short by a scream.

"Mr. Luthor, we need to go now!" Hawkins exclaimed reaching for Lex's arm while this partner, did the same for Lana.

The gunfire grew louder as the screams continued, one after the other. And it was getting closer.

"We have to move," Hawkins cast an apprehensive look behind him as other sounds began to rumble throughout the mansion along with gunfire and screaming. Glass shattering, what felt and sounded like collapsing mortar, a groan of steel. It created a cacophony of sound that could only mean destruction. "Now."

Lex took Lana's hand even as he was being herded towards the door, towards the safe room he was starting to have serious doubts would be able to protect them at all. They almost left the large parlor where Lex did most of his entertaining when the entire wall crumbled following a deafening roar. As brick and mortar continued to crumble, a body was flung through the opening, bloody and broken.

Lana let out of a scream of fright as two men stepped through the opening.

"Oliver?" Lex exclaimed with shock as he saw the tall, blond CEO of Queen Industries stepped through the ruptured wall, dusting off the collar of his dark suit with indifference and barely casting a glance at the man who was lying dead on the ground. However, Lex's question stopped short when he saw who else was with him.

"Fine…"

Fine did not speak but Oliver took a step towards Lex.

"STOP WHERE YOU ARE!" Hawkins shouted, bringing a weapon to bear at the blond man.

Oliver did not stop and Hawkins opened fire with the automatic machine gun. The first bullet impacted against Oliver's cheek before promptly flattening to a lead lump before falling on the carpet harmlessly. The others followed suit and when the barrage was over; Oliver turned to his assailant and incinerated him with one concentrated burst of heat vision. Hawkins scream was short and final.

When the dust cleared, there was barely ash.

"Oh my god…" Lana started to shake even harder. "Oh my god," she muttered. "Zod."

Lex turned sharply to Oliver, trying to catch up with the leap that Lana had made and realized this was why Fine was present. "You used Oliver?" Lex accused him angrily, recalling how he had been tricked into creating a vaccine when in truth, he was creating his own doom.

Zod took another step towards Lex and the second security guard raised his weapon to fire. Before he could pull the trigger, Fine's hand shifted into a spike and he was impaled to the wall like a fly on piece of corkboard. Blood escaped his mouth as he sputtered into death with a violent spasm.

Alone now, Lex clutched Lana's hand, facing his own death in Oliver's cool green eyes.

"You seem smaller from out here," Zod remarked with a little smile.

"What do you want?" Lex hissed.

"What belongs to me," Zod replied, not mincing words. "You are in possession of _my_ property. I would like it back."

Lex didn't understand, "I don't know what you're talking about." He said with genuine puzzlement.

Zod nodded and Fine raised his hand, fingers tapering into a sharp spike that stopped inches from Lana's belly.

"Consider your next words carefully," Zod warned. "Where is it?"

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!" Lex burst out desperately, taking a step towards Lana and was stopped when the spike extended even further, pressing into Lana's flesh without actually breaking skin.

"Lex, they mean the device!" Lana blurted out terrified, her lovely face contorted with terror as she tried not to look at what was ready to impale her.

Lex shot Zod a look. "It was destroyed!" He explained desperately. "One of you people came here and took all its power. There's nothing left!"

"And being a product of a slightly evolved simian species gives you the acumen to make that determination?" Fine snorted. "Drained of its power, the device reverts to its base components until it is re-energized."

"There were only particles left, dust!" Lex glared at Oliver. No, not Oliver, Zod.

"Bring it to me," Zod said coldly.

"It's at the lab in Metropolis," Lex answered, eyes darting between Lana and Fine. "I can show you where."

"That you will," the General nodded in agreement. "I promised Kal-El that I would leave you for him but I made no such agreement about her," Zod's eyes fixed on Lana. "If you do not return my property, I will make you watch while I take her apart, one limb at a time."

"I got it," Lex nodded understanding perfectly but wondered how it was that he kept hearing the name Kal-El during these encounters.

Who was Kal-El and what grudge did he have against Lex?

Sprawled across plain cotton sheets, Lois Lane lifted her head and groaned when her body ached in protest at what she had been endured the past few hours. Through the miasma of pleasure and pain, of Kal making good on his promise to make scream his name over and over again, Lois' belief that something terrible had taken place had no doubt now.

Unfortunately, there was no way to stop Kal when he decided he wanted her because he was relentless in his desire. Over and over again, Lois felt herself taken and was ashamed because she couldn't even call it rape. It was being consumed alive by the god of dark lust who just so happened to be wearing the face of the man she loved, using his voice, his hands to touch her like no one had ever done. And no matter how much she tried, Lois knew that Kal was Clark too, a dark reflection of suppressed wants and desire.

To some degree, she was almost flattered by the passion Clark felt for her, the passion that Kal had no restraint to deny and was happy to exploit to its fullest. Still it was _Clark_ that Lois wanted back and somehow, she had to play this charade to understand what it was that had happened to him. The sheets of his bed smelled of sweat and sex, the product of hours of repeated couplings. He was insatiable and when she pushed herself off the bed, keeping a sheet around herself as she moved past the bureau, Lois swallowed seeing the bruises in the mirror.

"Talk about rough sex," she muttered before searching around for something to wear since her suit was nothing but tattered remains on the kitchen floor.

Like most young men his age with a mother too busy these days to keep up her house keeping duties, most of his clothes were in the hamper and she reached in for one of his plaid shirts. Lifting the flannel fabric to her nose, she took a deep breath and felt a surge of sorrow because she could smell his scent on it. Not Kal's scent but _Clark's_. She held it to her cheek for a moment, struggling to compose herself because Lois Lane did not believe in weeping or doing nothing.

For all the times he had come through for her, for all the times he saved her, Chloe and everyone else in his life who came into harm's way, Lois made a vow she would not abandon Clark now. Whatever it took, whatever she had to endure with Kal, she'd do it without flinching because she loved him. Wherever he was, trapped in his mind possibly, Lois was going to find him. This silent oath gave her some measure of calm, some resolve and like all hurdles, Lois applied her determination to some tangible form of action.

She needed to talk to Chloe.

He wasn't downstairs either when she finally made her way to the kitchen and noted with some surprise that everything was tidied. There was no sign of their tryst and for a moment, Lois would have believed she had dreamed it if not for the aches in her muscles and her body. Noticing the phone was off the hook; she put the handset back in place and was immediately treated to a shrill ring.

"Hello?"

"LOIS!" Chloe Sullivan burst out as she drove down the highway towards Smallville. "Where the hell have you been? I have been trying to call you for hours!"

"Chloe, Chloe," Lois interrupted quickly, grateful to hear her cousin's voice for more reasons than one. "Listen! Clark's back but he's _different_."

"Different?" Chloe's insides froze at the implication.

"His calling himself Kal." Lois continued, oblivious to this.

"Oh my god," Chloe gasped, beginning to understand. "Lois, this is important, does he have any red meter rocks on him?"

"What" Lois exclaimed. "What's red meteor rock gotta to do with it? For that matter, since when is there red meteor rock? I thought it was all green."

"Lois, listen to me," Chloe said firmly, "when Clark gets near red meteor rocks, it changes his personality. He loses all his inhibitions, it's like he's riding on nothing but the fumes of pure impulse, nothing else matters."

Lois listened and as incredulous as it sounded, her description seemed to fit. If Chloe was right then Clark's desire for her had been unrestrained and Kal was doing everything he was normally too afraid to do himself. Even before Chloe had told her why, Lois had made that leap but that still didn't explain how a meteor rock could affect him so adversely. With the meteor freaks it was due to some form of exposure and even then it wasn't turned on and off just like that.

Suddenly, she heard the familiar rushing of wind that she had gotten used to whenever he came over. "I gotta call you back."'

No sooner than she had hung up the phone and turned around, Clark or rather Kal, was standing in front of her. Still clad in his expensive clothes, she had to admit, the guy looked real good in those leather pants. Seeing him like this was like staring into Mirror Universe Clark… it was just unnerving.

"Hey," he smiled happily pulling her to him again in another passionate kiss that made Lois' head swim. However, she prayed he didn't want to have sex _again_. She was sore enough as it was. "You're awake."

"Yeah," Lois smiled putting her arms around his neck, playing the part. "Where have you been?"

"Well since I wore you out," he smirked proudly at that, "I thought I'd go to Metropolis for a minute. I wanted to get you something." Kal grinned like a little boy with a secret as he ran his large hands up and down her back.

"Ooh I love surprises," Lois returned and looked over his shoulder to see a bag from her favorite eatery in Metropolis. It was just around the corner from the Inquisitor and recalled trying to convince Clark to try it. The man of steel apparently wasn't that much of a fan of spicy food. Go figure. "You went and got me Thai food?"

"Among other things," Kal laughed, taking her hand as he led her to the kitchen counter where the bag was sitting. "Look inside." He instructed with a playful smile. Even now, he was on a high and if he wasn't painfully aware of how human she was, he'd be mounting her again. Flashes of memory filled his mind at how wonderful she felt, how great it was to hear her voice screaming his name.

"You're awful smug Smallville," she teased, trying to sound like herself instead of the girlfriend going crazy with worry about what had turned the Eagle Scout into Sex God Supreme.

"_Kal_," he stated firmly, his eyes darkening for a moment before he broke into that smile again, like the sun breaking through the storm cloud. "Open it."

Lois reached into the bag and while there containers of food, there was also something else. Knotting her brows in puzzlement, her fingers grasped the object and pulled it past the brown paper. Dangling from her fingertips was a bracelet that glimmered with sapphires big enough to be M&M's set in gold. She had been around Oliver and expensive jewelry enough to know that this thing alone could pay off the Kent mortgage in the trade in value.

"Oh my god Kal," Lois gasped openly, glancing at him momentarily before returning to stare at it with awe. "Its beautiful."

"Do you like it?" he delighted in her reaction. "You deserve nice things Lois. From now no, that's all you're ever going to get." He wanted to lavish her with everything he had never been able to afford, all those times when he had to check just how much money he had to buy a gift or take a girl out. No more. He was finally going to treat the women in his life the way they should be treated.

"Come on, let me put it on you," Kal said affectionately, not thinking on how he had put three store clerks and one customer in the hospital when he smashed his way into the place to retrieve this bauble. He had moved so fast, he doubted they even know what had happened until it was over.

Unable to think of a thing to say in protest, Lois let him take her hand and wrapped the expensive bracelet around her wrist. "Where did you get this?"

Stupid question, she told herself almost immediately. With his powers, he could walk into any jewelry store in Metropolis, snatch this thing and be back in Smallville before they even knew there was a robbery.

"Doesn't matter," he ignored the question and continue to fasten it to her wrist before pulling her to him and claiming her mouth in another brutal kiss, hard and demanding. "This is how its going to be from now on Lois. You and me. We're going to own the world. Now you rest up cos when I get back, we're flying to Paris. You always said you wanted to go."

"You're going to find the Concord?" She teased.

"Something like that," Kal laughed before turning to leave.

"Wait!" She called out to him and noted his expression at the sharpness of her cry. Recovering quickly Lois went to him. "Where are you going?" She put a slightly seductive lilt to her voice. "I thought we could…" Lois smiled at him.

"You're insatiable," he grinned and kissed her again. "But I got to go do a few things right now. When I come back, you can show me what you got in mind."

"Sounds like a plan," she smiled half heartedly back at him and watched him leave after another quick kiss. Like a streak of blue, he vanished into the distance and Lois waited for a good ten minutes before she picked up the phone again.

"Chloe, where are you?" Lois asked.

"I'm an hour out from Smallville," Chloe's replied. "Is Clark still there?"

"No," she shook her head. "He's gone but he's going to be back. You and me need to do some talking. I'll be waiting at the Talon."

"Not safe," Chloe's answer was short and to the point, "you know where the Kawatchi caves are?"

"I'll find it," she said firmly, recalling something about a reserve that was under Luthor Corp's administration until recently.

"Good I'll meet you there as soon as I can and Lois?" Chloe added. "If you find any green meteor rocks, _pick it up_."


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER FIVE:  
REVELATIONS

It felt almost surreal.

In the background, the soft clink of ivory keys brought to life on Lex's expensive grand piano, haunting music played by Milton Fine Lana Lang sat in silence, listening to the perfection of each note, watching the man, who was not a man, continue to play while acting as her jailor. It had been an hour since Lex had left the mansion with Zod and each second that passed, Lana grew more and more frightened. She had first hand knowledge of how brutal Zod could be and was gripped with fear at what Zod might do if Lex could not give him what he wanted.

For no other reason than to stop her mind from conjuring up horrors that were almost as potent as the reality she now faced, Lana asked Fine, "what are you Kryptonians?"

Fine who had been playing Mozart's Magic Flute, paused in his piano concerto and regarded the female. "I believe the term is _alien_."

Encouraged by his willingness to respond, Lana licked her lips, thinking about of a question to which she did _not_ know the answer. She had suspected extra terrestrial of some sort when she had first seen the black space ship but hearing it confirmed, did not ease her fears.

"What do you want with Earth?" Lana asked instead.

"I want nothing with it. It is the General wishes a new home." Fine answered, continuing to play, his eyes closed as he savored Mozart's finest.

"Why can't he just go back to Krypton?" she inquired, watching him, hoping that he didn't think her questions impudent and attempt to harm her.

"It was destroyed." Fine explained, seeing no harm in telling the girl data that was ultimately harmless. Krypton's destruction was no secret after all, it was history and the girl would not live long enough to make use of what he was telling her.

"Destroyed? How?" How does one destroy an entire planet? Destroyed by whatever Zod's trying to do to Earth?"

Fine uttered a short laugh. "No. Krypton was destroyed when its sun went supernova. The green meteor rocks are all that's left of it."

The enormity of what he said made Lana fall silent for an instant. All those years she had been wearing that necklace around her neck as a symbol of losing her parents when instead, she'd been wearing the destruction of someone's home world like a trophy. She felt sick with horror. "And _everybody_ died?"

"More or less," Fine said with a smirk, his expression enigmatic. "A few survived in a place called the Phantom Zone, like _Zodt_."

Lana was about to ask something else when suddenly she heard footsteps and felt her heart beat a little faster, knowing that it was most likely Zod and Lex coming back. Eyes darting to the door, she did not know what to expect although Fine made no mood to stop playing. Instead of Lex however, Lana saw a more familiar face step through the ruined wall where a door used to be.

"Clark!" She almost leapt up from the leather seat with relief.

"Lana," he said giving her an odd look she wasn't quite able to read before his blue green eyes shifted to Fine. "Where's Lex?"

"Zod's taken him to Metropolis," Fine replied, his fingers still as the music fell silent.

"You should have gone with him," Kal looked at the Construct reproachfully. "You know how tricky Lex can be and he may have some of those Section 33.1 freaks working for him. They could interfere with his majesty's plans." Clark wore a smirk of mischief.

Lana listened to Clark with nothing less than astonished horror.

"Clark, what are you doing?" She demanded. "Do you know what Zod is? Do you know what he'll do to Lex or the rest of the planet?" Lana stared at him with aghast. She knew things ended badly with Clark and supposed she could have done better than to go to his best friend for comfort after their break up. However, she had also heard Clark was dating Lois in recent times. She had been happy for him because no matter how angry she had been, Lana still cared about Clark Kent and if he couldn't be happy with her, she didn't begrudge him being happy with someone else. Surely that meant he had put aside any enmity he might have had towards Lex and her?

Kal exchanged a bemused expression with Fine and then approached her on the seat. Hands on the side of her arms, he coaxed her into standing. Lana followed suit, thinking he had some secret to impart upon her, that this was his way to convey to her that his behavior was an act, some ruse to gain the enemy's confidence. He had been the one who had tried to stop Zod the last time and thanks to her foolishness, she had not given him the benefit of the doubt or trusted him enough to know what he was doing. Her actions had almost doomed the human race.

"Clark," Lana tried desperately to reach him. "You have to help us. You're the only one who can."

She didn't know why this was so but it was a truth as incontrovertible as night and day.

She was so beautiful, Kal thought as he looked into those brown eyes that could melt even a heart made out stone. So beautiful and different from Lois, there was something about Lana that was ageless. She personified the perfection of first love. Lana was the ideal image that Clark Kent would always hold in his heart even when it was Lois that meant everything to him.

Kal-El on the other hand, could only remember who she belonged to and as he listened to the soft sound of a second heartbeat emanating from her belly.

He leaned over to her hear and whispered softly, "Sorry Lana, I've got better things to do and you're not one of them. Besides," he pulled back with a cruel smile. "I'm not looking to have a taste of Lex's sloppy seconds."

Lana's eyes widened and lashed out, striking him across the cheek.

Kal barely felt anything but smiled at hitting so close to home. "Now if you had done a bit more of than that just whining like a sick dog, I might not have dumped you but hey, you did well for yourself anyway. You're living every small town girl's big dream. Get knocked up by the local billionaire. I bet the rock he laid on you is worth all the time on your back."

"Shut your mouth," Lana hissed, bleeding from a thousand wounds at his cutting words.

Kal laughed, delighting in the look of pain in her eyes. See how _she_ liked it for a change. "I'm going to Metropolis to find Zod. Watch her. I don't want her to miss anything when I get my hands on Lex."

"Of course Kal-El," the Construct obeyed.

"Kal-El?" Lana gasped. "You're Kal-El."

"That's right Lana," Kal said not caring if she knew. "I am Kal-El. I tried to be Clark but being Clark meant having to run off and try and help people all the time. All those absences, all those times Clark couldn't be there for you. He was trying to save everybody and you know what? All he got for his trouble was his girl treating him like he crap and whining how he couldn't be honest. All those times, he tried to convince you that there was a good reason for him being gone and you couldn't even give him the benefit of the doubt. You hurt him worse than anyone was able to hurt him so now he's gone and _I'm_ here," he stared at her with flinty eyes. "And both you and Lex are going to hurt just as bad…for awhile anyway."

Leaving her with that thought, Kal walked out of the parlor, his super-hearing making him smile when he heard her start to sob.

Lois had never been inside the Kawatchi Caves but as she moved through the darkness, she wasn't all that eager to change that either. The place felt downright eerie.

It was like walking through a haunted house, where the wooden floorboards reeked with a sinister past and tragedy clung to the walls like the dusty cobwebs. Lois felt something creeping up her spine the further into it she went. The flash light only illuminated a small space in front of her and didn't provide nearly enough light to put her at ease. Why couldn't she have one of those huge xenon things like Mulder and Scully?

At this rate, fluke man was sure as hell going to get her.

"Chloe?" Lois called out. "Chloe you had better be in here."

"I'm here Lois," Chloe Sullivan called from the far end of the cave. Fortunately, the place was still in the middle of the limbo where Luthor Corp had been forced to relinquish control while the federal government had yet to take it. All excavation work had ceased and for now at least, they could talk uninterrupted. Chloe made her way into the alcove of rock that Clark had used to reach his fortress. She had no expectations that it would work for her. Whether or not Clark had given any thought to the matter, Chloe suspected that the technology that carried out the transportation was specific to Kryptonian DNA.

Lois followed the beacon of light offered by Chloe's torch and entered the grotto. In the centre of it sat what appeared to be a stone altar, with strange symbols and carvings on the flat face of it. Looking around the place with a mixture of wonder and concern, Lois' eyes met Chloe's.

"And this is better than the Talon _how?_"

"Trust me Lois," Chloe said sweeping her gaze around their surroundings. "Kal won't come here. Not unless he really has to. He wouldn't look for you here either."

"You mean Clark," Lois retorted but inside, she knew Chloe meant Kal.

"I mean _Kal_," Chloe repeated. "Lois, how much has Clark told you about himself? About his powers?"

Lois cleared her throat, the subject making her feel slightly uncomfortable. Things had been so perfect between her and Clark that Lois had been a little afraid of opening that can of worms. Getting used to the fact that he had all these powers was not as hard as one would think. Who didn't love a boyfriend who could make it to the city to get takeaway and be back in half an hour? Or who could open every jar even if it was welded with titanium rivets, to say nothing about his ability to start a fire when it got cold? The truth was his powers didn't frighten Lois as much as how he might have gotten them because even she could tell that there was more to it than he was saying.

"Not very much," Lois gave Chloe a look of guilt. "I didn't want to press him and I guess apart of me was a little afraid to find out."

"I don't know whether I should tell you," Chloe sighed, undecided now that she was faced with how much truth she would be letting Lois on. This was Clark's right to do but they were faced with a situation that could not be masked beneath any façade. Lois knew this much, she needed to know the truth to help Clark and bring him back to them. It had taken nothing short of Jor-El and Jonathan Kent to bring Clark back the last time, Chloe didn't know if she and Lois could manage the same.

"You have to tell me," Lois said meeting her gaze with more emotion than Lois would like to show. She could be a hard ass over just about anything but Clark was becoming that exception to the rule she would not deny. "I want him back Chloe. I want Clark back, not that son of a bitch that's walking around in his body. _Clark_."

"Alright," Chloe nodded and started talking.

Lois did not know how much time had passed before Chloe finished speaking but it must have been a long time.

She suddenly felt insignificant and terribly important all at once. It was a puzzling feeling. She felt insignificant because the universe had suddenly opened up to her, like an oyster revealing a pearl. This was pearl shattered the foundation of everything she knew, of every science she had ever thought she understood. There was awe in her knowing that there was life out there, in space. Not just life but a universe of possibility. All those questions about whether humanity was alone on this pale blue dot had been answered.

And she felt terribly important because here was a secret that only a select few knew and really, it made sense when she thought about it. Even more so than him being a meteor freak. Since she met him there was this sense of something inside him, something alone, wanting and needing understanding but held in check by fear. She thought of all those odd conversations with Jonathan and Martha Kent, why there were times when an awkward silence would fall over them when she walked into a room.

Lois' respect for Martha and Jonathan reached a new level of admiration. How many people in this world would have taken in a child from the stars, to raise him with unconditional love and be prepared to sacrifice everything for him? Not many and Lois suddenly felt like she needed to find Martha Kent and hug her for the kindness that was all too rare in this world. And Clark, all alone, never being understood by anyone because of this secret. She remembered how he looked when he had lost Alicia, the terrible pain because for a moment, the loneliness was gone. Even when he had walked into the room after he had saved her from Wallace Echols, Lois had seen his fear and could not understand why he was so afraid.

Now she knew.

"Lois?" Chloe spoke, almost afraid that she had frightened Lois away from Clark for good. She prayed that was not the case. "Lois, are you okay?"

Lois didn't speak for a minute as her mind tried to take in enough to respond appropriately.

"You've known all this time?" She asked finally, looking at Chloe.

"No," Chloe quickly explained. "I found out not that long ago. Remember I asked you once what would do if you knew a secret about some you cared about?"

Lois blinked, the conversation playing in her head and now in context, understood why Chloe had wrestled with the decision. "I said that I'd go out of the way to make sure that they could become comfortable enough to tell me. You were talking about Clark."

"Yes," Chloe nodded watching her cousin whose look was beyond even her ability to read. "I was talking about Clark."

There was so much to process, so much she wanted to ask about but they had a problem right now and Lois if nothing else, knew how to prioritize. "Okay," she let out a deep breath, "I'll deal with this stuff later. Right now, we have to get Clark back."

"Right," Chloe said blinking away the emotions she was feeling. She was never prouder of Lois than at this moment for not only standing by her best friend but for being able to focus on what was important.

"So you're saying that this red meteor rock is what's causing this Bad Boy Clark episode?" Lois replied starting to pace.

"Yeah," she nodded in the affirmative. "It's happened twice before and both times, it hasn't been pretty."

"Fill me in later," Lois said abruptly. "I didn't see any rock on him Chloe."

"He has to have it," Chloe insisted. "It can't be anything else."

"Chloe, I didn't see it _anywhere_ on him." Lois returned just as determined.

"Are you sure?"

Lois' cheeks reddened and she said with a half smile. "Pretty sure. Our boy was very, very uhm…_frisky_, he was quick to get rid of his dry spell if you get my meaning?"

"Okay, okay, you convinced me," Chloe said wincing before remarking, "contrary to popular belief, Sex in the City is not the bible of every twenty something year old in America. Well I can't explain it then. It has to be the Red K unless…"

"Unless what…?" Lois stared at her.

"When Clark was exposed to silver kryptonite…"

"Silver Kryptonite?" Lois rolled her eyes. "What is this, the Baskin Robbins of a meteor rocks?"

"Lois!" Chloe gave her a impatient stare. "The point is, the stuff was injected into his skin. Milton Fine had to get it out using some Kryptonian doohickey."

"We'll we're screwed," Lois retorted thinking that this was no help at all. "First, we don't have any clue of where to find something like that. Secondly, we couldn't get close enough to use it without him seeing it."

"We could go to the fortress," Chloe suggested, glancing at the passageway that Clark took, the one that was now dark and seemingly inert. "We'd have to fly there since Clark's the only one who can take the short cut."

"That's going to take too long," Lois said as she went towards the cleft in the rock. "This is how Clark gets there?" She asked more out of curiosity than anything.

"Yeah but it only works on Kryptonian DNA I'm sure," Chloe answered. "Lois be careful, the thing doesn't react well to humans messing around with it." She warned, remembering Lionel Luthor and the archaeologist who had been brain fried after his encounter.

Lois hadn't meant to get any closer but suddenly, the cleft filled with a brilliant white light. Something ran over her body, warm and intense, it started from her head, moving down her shoulders and resting momentarily on her belly, creating a surge of heat she couldn't explain before moving down to her toes. The light became brilliant and Lois wondered if perhaps by some miracle, it sensed who she was to Clark.

Then a more logical conclusion came to mind although it made her blush with embarrassment. God only knew how she was going to explain _this_ to Chloe. An ordeal for another time.

"Chloe, come on!"

"Oh crap," Chloe grumbled, remembering this part and not enjoying it. Hurrying to her cousin, the two women stepped through the portal and vanished it a final flash of light.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SIX: THE HOUSE OF EL

"Okay how did you do that?" Chloe Sullivan asked as she pulled her coat closer to her skin and knew that no matter how much she pulled, she was not going to get remotely warm.

"You don't want to know," Lois said as they trudged across the frozen tundra towards the crystal structure in the distance. If anything had driven home what being in love with a Kryptonian meant, it was her arrival in the middle of a snow plain after instantaneous travel from the semi-warmth of Kansas. Deciding that she was almost certainly Alice after stepping through a certain rabbit hole, Lois was accepting the rest of Clark's heritage as it came.

"I want to know," Chloe demanded as she saw her breath turn to vapor as she followed Lois. Thank God she was wearing boots and not her heels as she had planned this morning. She'd get frostbite even before they got half way there.

Lois didn't answer, staring instead at Clark's fortress.

Was this what passed for architecture in Krypton? It was pretty, there was no doubt about it. The architectural design alone was light years ahead of anything seen on Earth. Still, Lois thought as she approached it, it felt cold, unyielding. There was no warmth about it, even if it was surrounded by snow. She wondered what Clark must have thought, being told that this was his people were like, after living in the home of Jonathan and Martha Kent. For the first time, Lois began to understand how overwhelming it was for him.

Every teenager felt alienated. That was nature of being young but Clark, Clark had gone through a whole new definition of isolation. He didn't just feel alienated, he was one. How hard must it have been for him to be around his friends, constantly hiding everything he was? Is this why he and Lana never got it together? Because he couldn't tell her?

"Lois," Chloe persisted. "That cave only reacts to Kryptonian DNA and as you and I are not super anything, there's no reason for it to have worked."

"Will you give it up Chloe?" Lois rolled her eyes. "Its going to come under too much information and gross you out. You remember how you were when you wanted to know why Petey Parker never got hungry even though his mom only fed him celery sticks for lunch?"

"This is different then some kindergartener eating worms Lois."

"Alright," Lois paused and looked at her with a raised brow. "You said the 'whatever it is' only recognizes Kryptonians right?"

"Yes?" Chloe looked at her suspiciously.

"Well that means DNA, does it not?" Lois Lane looked at her innocently.

"Of course." Chloe retorted.

"And do you think that when Kal showed up this morning, all hot and bothered that he was particularly concerned about birth control or for that matter protection….?"

Chloe eyes widened. "EWGH!"

Lois smirked, "told ya."

Arriving at the fortress, Lois hated being here with Chloe.

It was nothing personal against her cousin but Lois wished that it was Clark who was showing her this place, not her arriving as an unwanted guest. Not for the first time today, Lois wished it was Clark who was telling her the truth about himself, not her hearing it from Chloe. Even though Lois was eternally grateful that Chloe had all the information she needed, a part of Lois felt guilty that she hadn't asked Clark to reveal the truth he needed to tell her. In retrospect, Lois knew she was a bit afraid about learning the truth of his origins. Perhaps she had always known that he wasn't just another meteor freak.

Things had just been working so well between them, Lois hadn't wanted anything like an inconvenient truth to spoil things. Even if she had never said it to him, Lois Lane knew she was in love with Clark Kent. She knew it with a certainty she never thought possible. Ironically, the Jonathan Kent of her life had turned out to be Clark and Lois knew as she reached the steps of this crystal fortress, that there was nothing she wouldn't do for him.

Arriving at the fortress, Lois couldn't deny how beautiful it was as they entered the place, surrounded by the tall crystal spires that gleamed in the evening sun. Even if her earlier impressions did not produce a favorable view of Kryptonians, she had to admit, they knew how to design buildings that took one's breath away. Miracle of miracles, a place that left Lois Lane at a loss for words. With a laugh, she wished she could have shared that with Clark since he would have gotten a big kick out of it but of course, he was in a place she could no longer reach.

"So what now?" Chloe asked, almost as out of her depth here as Lois.

"I don't know," Lois shook her head. "The answer to helping Clark is here but I don't know where to start looking."

Moving across the irregular surface of the fortress' floor, Lois wondered if this place was a mixture of crystal and ice or one of each? So many questions filled her head but Lois didn't know which one to ask.

"Something is wrong," Chloe said as they approached what she recognized from her previous visit as the central hub of the fortress. She had helped Clark fight Milton Fine here and she didn't recall it being bathed in an angry red glow.

"What?" Lois turned to her cousin.

"This panel," Chloe looked at the collection of clear crystals bathed in red. "It shouldn't look like this."

Lois stared. "What should it look like?"

Chloe didn't know what she was looking for. "Lois, look." She sighted the dark crystal that was imbedded in the panel. "This is the same crystal that Milton Fine tried to trick Clark into using to free Zod."

"Who?" Lois felt she was five steps behind.

"I'll explain later," she reached for it. "We got to pull this thing out of there."

"Chloe you don't know what that might do," Lois declared, halting her hand. "Let me. I'm the one with…"

"Don't say it," Chloe winced. "I'm already grossed out. Just pull the thing out."

Lois frowned and reached for the point of the dark crystal. Among the clear crystal shards, it almost looked profane, like a malignancy that had no business being where it was. Lois put both hands around it and pulled. It wouldn't come free easily but Lois was not about to give up, putting her strength into it, she grunted and yanked it with all the force she could muster. The dark crystal flew out of her hands and shattered against the floor.

"Oops?" Lois gave Chloe an apologetic look.

The effect upon the other crystals was immediate. Immediately, the red vanished and she saw nothing but clear, shards, gleaming under the sunlight. Whatever taint the dark crystal had caused was gone for now.

LOIS LANE, a voice boomed around her.

Lois exchanged a look with Chloe. "What the hell?"

"Shhhh Lois," Chloe nudged, suspecting the voice belonged to the true master of this fortress and it wasn't Clark.

LOIS LANE.

"Who the hell is that?" Lois hissed at Chloe.

MARTHA KENT BROUGHT YOU HERE WHEN YOU WERE INJURED.

"What…." Lois started to say and then remembered the dream she had following the plane crash months ago. She had dreamed she was in heaven and told Clark as much but it was no dream was it, she was here. In this place. "That was here? This was the place I thought was heaven?"

"Heaven?" Chloe looked at her.

Lois shook off the question and addressed the voice who had called her by name. "Clark is in trouble, we need to help him!"

KAL-EL HAS BEEN AFFECTED BY RED KRYPTONITE.

"We know already!" Lois shouted back. God for a cryptic omnipresent being, this guy liked stating the obvious. "Tell us how to help him."

MILTON FINE HAS INJECTED REFINED RED KRYPTONITE INTO HIS BLOODSTREAM. IT MUST BE EXTRACTED IF KAL-EL IS TO RETURN TO HIMSELF.

"Oh my god," Chloe exclaimed understanding now why Lois had seen nothing on Clark's person. "Ask him about the thing… the one Fine used to get rid of the silver kryptonite."

"You ask him," she gave Chloe a look.

"Lois, I'm not the one who might be his daughter-in-law…"

"_That's not funny_," Lois snapped promptly but then paused, because Chloe was right. "There was a device that Fine used to extract silver kryptonite from Clark, if I have any shot of saving him, I'll need that."

Suddenly, from one of the white, angled walls, a slot seemed to appear through the ice before extending outward to reveal the curious device that looked part ray gun and part super soaker. She took the device in her hand and marveled at how light it was.

"This will do it?" Lois asked the voice.

IT WILL REMOVE THE KRYPTONITE PARTICLES FROM KAL-EL.

Lois really hated hearing Clark being called that, especially after her close encounters with Kal.

YES, the voice of Jor-El answered. HOWEVER, MATTERS HAVE BECOME MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN KAL-EL'S SITUATION.

Chloe who had drawn away from the panel to look around, sighted something that made her hurry across the irregular surface. Dropping to her knees, she picked up the object and studied it with an expression of worry on her face.

"LOIS!"

The intensity of Chloe's call made the brunette start running. "What is it?"

"Look," Chloe lifted up her find for her to see.

Lois who had spent months after the trail of the Green Arrow Bandit, recognized immediately what Chloe had in her hand. "I don't understand," she directed the question more at Jor-El than Chloe. "I've seen this before. This belongs to the Green Arrow. What is it doing here?"

FINE NEEDED A VESSEL, Jor-EL responded promptly. AS IT COULD NOT RETAKE THE BODY OF ITS PREVIOUS HOST, FINE SELECTED THE ONE YOU KNOW AS THE GREEN ARROW TO BE THE VESSEL HE NEEDED."

"Oh God," Chloe exclaimed, understanding far swifter than Lois because she had been present for this act before. "Oh no, Clark didn't…."

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE RED KRYPTONITE, FINE WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE KAL-EL TO OPEN THE PHANTOM ZONE AND RELEASE ZOD. HE NOW INHABITS THE BODY OF THE GREEN ARROW.

"What is it Chloe?" Lois demanded, suddenly realizing that thing had escalated beyond the simple task of saving Clark.

"Zod, Zod is loose!" Chloe said quickly. "We have to get back to Smallville. We've got to get Clark back or none of us is going to survive!"

Chloe remembered all too well what had happened the last time Zod was unleashed. Clark had barely managed to escape the Phantom Zone and defeat the General. How were she and Lois going to manage the same while trying to free Clark from the effects of the Red Kryptonite?

"Who is this Zod?" Lois demanded, wanting answers.

GENERAL ZOD IS A CRIMINAL FROM KRYPTON. HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR PLANET. HE WAS TRAPPED IN THE PHANTOM ZONE WITHOUT A BODY UNTIL THE BRAIN INTERACTIVE CONSTRUCT YOU KNOW AS MILTON FINE, TRICKED KAL-EL INTO RELEASING HIM.

Zod. A bad guy with all of Clark's powers and none of the moral inhibitors, the thought was terrifying. Chloe was freaking out and with good reason. Looking at the device in her hand, Lois considered what had to be done. She had to get close enough to Clark to use this thing first and then deal with Zod. She couldn't get close enough to Clark with this device or a meteor rock without his X-ray vision seeing it.

A plan formed in her head. It was risky but it was the only shot they had.

"Chloe," Lois looked at her cousin. "You said Lionel Luthor knows about Clark."

"Yes," Chloe nodded shaking from the cold a little. "He's known for about a year now."

"Okay," Lois could work with that. "When we get back, you need to go find him. You need to tell him what's happened and ask him cook something up for you."

"Cook something up?" Chloe stared blankly at her cousin. "What?"

Lois told her.

Chloe's jaw dropped open. "Lois, are you crazy? Do you know what could happen if you're wrong?"

"He'll kill me," Lois said simply, perfectly aware of the game of Russian roulette she was playing. "If we don't get him back, we're dead anyway. If this guy Zod's as bad as everyone says then he's not going to keep Clark around for long. Megalomaniacs have low tolerance with competition."

Chloe could agree with that.

"Alright," Chloe nodded. "Let's do this thing."


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER SEVEN: LUTHERCORP

Well this was different.

Over the years, he had come to Metropolis in a variety of ways. Plane, helicopter, behind the steering wheel of a fast car, on one drunken expedition where he had awoke not knowing where he was; by bus and finally following a sensual weekender with a stewardess name Brandie, by train in a private berth.

This was the first time he had ever flown with neither plane or chopper.

Lex had known that Kryptonians were powerful. From the encounters he had with the duo that preceded Zod, not to mention Fine himself, Lex had estimated that there wasn't much this race couldn't do. However, he hadn't known they could fly. Shortly after leaving Lana at the mansion, Zod had taken to the skies, flying at speeds he was lucky to survive, only to reach the Metropolis skyline in record time.

Zod had said little during the trip and Lex felt more than a little uneasy seeing him wear Oliver's face. Oliver who was into charities and helping his fellow man, whose principles were so diametrically opposed to Lex's that knowing he was going to the instrument of such chaos felt almost poetic. It was the only thing about this whole situation that Lex could draw comfort from. _If_ he survived that is. Still in his mind however, was who Kal-El was. Clearly, this was a Kryptonian, who had no liking for him.

An absurd thought made him think that it was Clark but Lex dismissed it almost immediately. Whatever dislike Clark felt towards him, the Boy Scout would never allow Lana to be harmed, of that Lex could be certain.

Zod dropped him roughly onto the roof top of the Luther Corp building Lex thanks to a brief dalliance with skydiving, Lex rolled across the floor to keep himself from being hurt before coming to a rest on his hands and knees. Taking a moment to compose himself because he could end up puking his guts out at any minute, the CEO shot a glare at the General who regarded his condition with dispassion.

"Where is the device?:" Zod said impatiently.

"Just a minute…." Lex snarled angrily, gathering himself to stand. He was almost tempted to puke on Zod but had no desire for his last act on Earth to be regurgitation.

Not even his PR people would be able to spin that one, he thought absurdly.

"_Now_," Zod took a step forward.

"Alright!" Lex grumbled and stood up on his feet, a little shakily but nonetheless. "I'll take you to it."

As he led Zod through the door into the Luther Corp building, he was already thinking on how he could get away from this Kryptonian and get back to Smallville before Fine could harm Lana. Hating the fact that he was so helpless in the face of such overwhelming power, Lex was weighing his course of action carefully, perfectly aware that any miscalculation would be fatal. Descending into the stairwell that led into the building proper, Lex tried to reason with Zod and wondered if such a thing was possible.

From what Lana had told him, the General was impassive, disdainful of human life and singularly brutal.

"I can be of use to you," Lex stated as they reached the top floor of the building where the senior management offices were located.

"Really?" Zod retorted skeptically. "_Do_ explain how."

Lex thought quickly. "I have resources you can utilize, access to anything you want on this planet…"

"I already have all these things without you," Zod returned. "When I'm done with this planet, what opposition there is will be eliminated. I do not require humanity to rule."

Lex's stomach hollowed at the thought. "It's going to be a lonely kingdom."

"On the contrary," Zod said with confidence. "It will be full of my subjects from the Zone. From here, we will begin Krypton again and under the power of this star, we will be unstoppable."

Jeez and I thought I was full of it, Lex thought but said nothing further. At present, he had nothing to offer Zod and everything to lose.

"Good morning Mr. Luthor, Mr. Queen," they were greeted as they arrived at his office and was met by his secretary, Alison. She didn't question why he was here after he had told her this morning he was working from the mansion. Good secretaries didn't ask such things; they merely accepted the change in plans and moved on accordingly. Alison was no different.

"Alison," Lex said trying to sound as casual as possible and not give Zod any reason to harm her. "I'll be taking a private meeting in my office with Mr. Queen. I don't want to be disturbed."

"Of course," she said promptly from behind her desk, offering Oliver Queen a polite smile.

Zod studied the young woman with mild interest but allowed Lex to take the lead momentarily. The human's female associate took her orders without question as he walked past her into the room. Zod was already scanning the inside of it, searching for the device when suddenly; he came across a null space where his vision could not penetrate. Momentarily startled by the sudden blindness, Zod wasted no time in brushing past Lex once they were out of sight of the female.

"What is this?" Zod demanded as he approached the vault.

"What is what?" Lex looked at him puzzled but unsurprised that Zod would head for the vault.

Zod didn't answer, heading straight towards the huge metallic door embedded in the wall. Under normal circumstances, it would require a dozen of identification protocols for Lex to open it but as he stood behind Zod, could only feel his heart tighten in his chest as the Kryptonian sank his fingers into the titanium-lead door and rip it from its hinges like he was removing a flyscreen from a window. The metal tore like paper, creating a screech of sound that was deafening.

Lex cursed. Clearly, subtle was not in these people's vocabulary.

As security klaxons started to scream throughout the building, Zod stepped into the walk in safe containing all of Lex Luthor's most precious possessions. Once the door had been removed, Zod's enhanced vision was returned to him but he could not see beyond the walls of the vault. Running his hands against the smooth surface, he could see through the titanium but the other component in the alloy was impervious to his vision.

Interesting.

"MR LUTHOR!" Alison cried out hurrying into the room upon hearing the commotion of the torn door. "Is everything alright…."

Zod swung around and turned his gaze upon her. A blast of fiery heat escaped his eyes and incinerated the woman where she stood. Lex watched in horror as her body turned to flame and then cinder in little more than a second. Her scream was as short as her demise.

"You son of a bitch!" Lex shouted as he watched her die before she was even aware of what was happening to her. Forgetting himself, he rushed at Zod only to be swatted aside like an insect. Lex flew across the room and slammed into a wall, groaning in pain as he slid to the floor like a lump of nothing, feeling his teeth loosen.

"Do not forget your place," Zod warned and continued deeper into the vault, searching.

The Construct had been correct. The device had broken down to its base components upon the draining of its power. However, it was still functional and Zod had already determined how to repair it. The fragments had been kept in a hermetically sealed canister and as Zod scanned its inside, had all the confirmation he needed of its contents. With a smile, he tucked the canister back into the folds of his dark suit, preparing to return to the Construct in order to begin the next phase of their plans.

Stepping out of the vault, he started towards Lex when all off a sudden a phalanx of armed men entered the room, preparing to fire.

"Mr. Luthor!" One of them called out.

"Get away from here!" Lex attempted to warn them though grits of broken teeth. "RUN!"

The warning came too late as Zod unleashed more heat vision and as some burned, others opened fire. Lex kept his head down as bullets whizzed through the room amidst the rat-tat of machine guns. Scrambling beneath the down pour of fragmenting gyprock and glass as bullets tore through the office walls, Lex saw Zod taking fire with barely a scratch. Only his clothes suffered the ravages of gunfire nothing else did. The security guards terrified and unprepared for what they were dealing with, answered Zod's dispassion with more firepower.

A deep breath and a loud exhale and those who did not burn, were flung against walls as if a tornado had formed inside the room. Zod saw the humans vanquished with a smile, thrilling in the almost ecstatic sensation of absolute power. It had been a long time since he had enjoyed himself like this.

In the life before his body had been destroyed in the Phantom Zone, he had been a general, the greatest soldier of Krypton. In its name he had vanquished all enemies and in turn, Krypton had treated him as little more than a servant, extolling the achievements of his life as just another duty to be performed. In a world of sheep, he had been the lion.

And they sent him to the Zone for it.

Not here. He was the god he had always deserved to be.

"This has gone far enough!" Lex came up behind Zod. "See how this feels!"

Taking one of the specimens of green rock he had stored in the vault, he smashed the shard against the back of the Kryptonian's skull, expecting Zod's death. Instead, the meteorite fragmented into a thousand pieces and crumbled to the ground as if he had shattered it against solid concrete. Lex stared at broken pieces on his hand and on the floor with astonishment as Zod turned slowly around.

The General actually laughed.

Dusting the fragments of his shoulder almost bemused, Zod stared at Lex the way a parent might stare at an errant child.

"You amuse me Luthor," Zod retorted. "Your use to me might be as court jester if nothing else. You steal our technology; presume in your arrogance to think you understand concepts that are a thousand years ahead of your best minds, with no idea about anything really. This body was born and acquired here," the general said smugly. "These fragments of my home world, of Krypton, are only a danger to any life form that was _born_ _on_ Krypton. This body that the Construct acquired for was birthed on this primitive planet. It was a good try but like everything else attached to you, ultimately a failure. I promised Kal-El I would keep you alive but Zod answers to no one."

With that, Zod grabbed Lex by the jacket and promptly through him through the glass window of his office. The human's weight shattered the clear partition and his body began the lengthy plunge downward.

There was blinding pain as he impacted against the barrier, feeling it shatter against him and the rush of air from forty stories up, drove fragments into his skin. Lex let out a scream as he felt the nothingness beneath him and as he fell, thinking about Lana, thinking about his life and the child that might die not long after him, his scream was not of fear but rage and despair. It couldn't end like this! Yet as he fell, Lex saw no way to avoid the appointment with death he had missed six years ago.

His screams still in his ears, Lex closed his eyes, heart pounding so fast that it almost eclipsed the roaring of wind in his ears. He knew that fear of the end had encompassed all other thoughts and in his terror, he begged. He begged for his from a god who had never really answered any prayer except one and even so, was cruel enough to let him have what he wanted only to take it away so soon after.

Suddenly, he had come to a sudden stop and death didn't come with him. Somone had caught him.

"Hello Lex," Kal smirked as he held Lex Luthor in his arms after the man's rapid descent from forty stories up. He had arrived just in time to see the billionaire fly out the window and was not about to let Lex die that quickly. "I figured you were gonna piss off the General and have him break his promise to keep you alive until I got my hands on you."

"C..C…Clark?" Lex stammered through the violent trembling of his body as Clark Kent set him down on the pavement.

"_Kal_," the younger man corrected. "I'm Kal and you don't get to die just yet."

Oh God, Lex realized. Fine had gotten to Clark too, turned him into a vessel for this..this…Kal-El. "Clark listen to me," Lex tried to reach the friend who had to be in there somewhere. Zod was a monster but he couldn't believe that Clark would ever murder anyone. "You have the strongest will of any man I have ever met, fight it! This isn't you!"

Kal looked at Lex and said with a serious expression on his face. "Lex," he said with an exaggerated air. "You are so right, I can't turn against you. Turn against the guy who stole my girlfriend, who got her knocked up, who'd taken my friendship and had me investigated like I was some side show freak? How could I? Of course you're the one who is going to turn me away from the dark side. Help me Obi-Wan."

With that, he burst out laughing.

"You slay me Luthor, you really do. Now I'm gonna take you back to Lana because when I take you apart, she gets to watch."

From the lobby of the Luthor Corp building, Lionel Luthor watched as Clark Kent saved his son. However, there was no look of gratitude on Lex's face as Clark revealed his powers by whisking them both off the street and disappearing in a streak of blue. When the security alarms had been activated throughout the building, he had been ushered into the control room to assess the nature of the threat. Inside Lex's office, Lionel saw the full measure of the danger his son was facing. Oliver Queen had somehow acquired Kryptonian powers and Lionel couldn't even begin to imagine how this was possible.

When he saw Lex flung out the window, he had rushed to the lobby of sheer desperation, filled with a father's vain hope that perhaps he could save his child even if it was an impossible hope. However, the miracle that was Clark Kent had saved Lex's life but as Lionel watched, nothing he saw put him at ease. Something was terribly wrong. Deciding that he would not find answers here, Lionel left the building. He did not know if the Kryptonian upstairs had any inkling of his existence but if Lionel was to help in stopping him, the senior Luthor had better make himself scarce.

Leaving the building, Lionel got into his limousine and had himself immediately driven to the Luther Corp airstrip where his private jet awaited.

He had to get to Smallville and find out what was happening.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE PLAN

"Are you alright?" Chloe asked Lois as they walked towards their respective vehicles parked just beyond the fence perimeter of the Kawatchi Caves once Jor-El had sent them back to Kansas. Lois had said nothing during the walk out of the darkened passages and Chloe had fought the urge to ask until they were out in the sunlight again, how she was doing. At least Lois would feel as if they had sort of emerged from the rabbit hole.

Lois looked at her cousin, "I'm fine," she offered the younger woman a smile.

Thoughts were running through her head about what she had seen and now they were out in the daylight again, Lois wondered if any of it had been real. In the space of an hour, she had been transported from Kansas to an ice palace in the frozen north and then back to Kansas again. She had learned that Clark was an alien with a destiny bigger than anyone could possibly imagine and there was a monster running loose in the world, wearing Oliver Queen's face.

"It's a lot to take in," Chloe pointed out.

"No kidding," Lois gave her a look and then paused in mid step. "Am I freaking out? Yes, a little. You gotta give me that right? I mean I just found out that my boyfriend's an alien, his father is a disembodied voice who lives in an ice castle, his greatest enemy is now running around intending to destroy the world and yours truly is the only one who can get close enough to Clark to be able to do something about it. So I think I'm allowed to be a little freaked out." She prattled away in typical Lois mode.

"Sorry I asked," Chloe smirked a little, knowing this tirade was usually the build up to a more profound statement. Lois was like that, Chloe thought. It was Lois' way to eject a whole lot of hyperbole before getting to the heart of the matter.

"I think you're allowed too, for the record." Chloe added with a look of encouragement.

"Good," Lois resumed walking after that, expecting more from Chloe but grateful nonetheless for what was said.

"You know what else I've found out through all this mess? I…" she paused again, catching her breath. "I still love Clark."

The admission was made with an expression laced with concern and fear for him.

"I thought you might," Chloe smiled, nudging her cousin with an arm, showing Lois how proud she was of her cousin for being able to take so much in. Lois had been given so little time to adjust to what was rather momentous knowledge and to reach that conclusion with such finality.

Lois smiled faintly at Chloe, musing at how admitting what she felt about Clark out loud, seemed to solidify her resolve to help him. When Clark was himself again, they would need to have a long talk about things but for right now, Lois could deal with what she had learned from Jor-El and what she had seen. Lois loved Clark, possibly even more now knowing what he had tried to shield her from.

How terrifying this must be for him, raised on Earth as a simple farm boy only to learn of this great destiny? For the past two years Lois had done nothing but tease him about his brooding, never realizing what he must have gone through to endure all this alone, unable to tell Lana truth because inside he must have known deep down, she couldn't have handled it. As much as Lois respected Lana (until she started dating Luthor that is), Lois didn't' think Lana could have dealt with all this without some serious angst, which would have been the last thing Clark needed because he had enough of his own.

"Okay," she looked up at Chloe, shoving all those thoughts aside when they reached the cars. Now was not the time to deal to ruminate over ancient history. Like Lois' own General was so fond of saying, now it was the time to deal with the problem. "You get a hold of Lionel Luthor and I'll get back to the….

The air was suddenly filled with Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls Want to have Fun' and Lois winced knowing the source of this so called music was Chloe's ring tone for her cell.

"You're killing me with that tone, you know that right?" Lois grumbled as Chloe shot her a dark look and fumbled through her hand bag to find her phone.

"Chloe Sullivan," the Daily Planet reporter ignored her cousin and held the phone to her ear.

"Miss Sullivan?" Lionel Luthor's voice answered almost immediately. "Thank God I've got found you. Miss Sullivan, what's happened to Clark?"

Ten minutes later, Chloe ended the call.

"What's happened?" Lois demanded, having only heard snippets of the conversation and the rising alarm on Chloe's face told her the situation had escalated somewhat.

"I'm not sure," Chloe said trying to piece together what Lionel had told her. "It seems that Oliver Queen turned up at Lex's office and took out a whole bunch of guards with super strength and heat vision."

"Ollie?" Lois exclaimed. "Wait didn't Joe say…"

"Joe?" Chloe's brows shot up.

"Joe – Jor-El's a bit of a mouthful," Lois snorted. "Didn't he say that Zod took over the Green Arrow?"

"Yeah but its Oliver that showed up at the Luthor Corp with the Kryptonian mojo… Lois do you realize what this means?" Chloe stared at her cousin.

Lois was already there, five steps ahead. "It means that I have a super power too." Her expression unreadable.

"Excuse me?" Chloe stared at her.

"The ability to attract guys who have BIG FREAKING SECRETS!" Lois barked sarcastically. "Oh I am so going to kill that guy when we get rid of Zod." Fuming, Lois turned back to Chloe to return to the subject at hand, "What happened after 'Zod' showed up at Luther Corp?"

"Right," Chloe shook off the detour, "Apparently he raided Lex's safe and then threw Lex out of the window from forty stories up only to have Clark catch him. However, Lionel didn't think Lex looked all that happy to see him despite the fact that Clark had saved his life."

"Not surprising," Lois shrugged, "I mean seriously if you were an out of control Clark Kent, who is the person you'd like to put the most hurt on?"

"Ouch," Chloe agreed wholeheartedly with that once since she knew how Clark felt about Lex from first hand knowledge. "Not just him but Lana too."

"Okay," Lois said quickly, "you take this." She handed Chloe the extraction device that Jor-El had provided them. "After you meet up with Lionel and get what you need from him, go to the loft, put everything in place like we talked about. After that, head for Topeka and find Mrs. Kent, make sure she doesn't come home. With Zod in the picture, we're going to clear board so he doesn't have any more leverage on Clark than he already has. That means you too…"

"Lois!" Chloe protested.

"Chloe," Lois said firmly. "I don't have time to fight with you on this. You know that the best way to get to Clark is through the people he loves. I don't know this Zod but I've been a general's daughter long enough to know how they think. If we get Clark back and he goes after Zod, you can bet who Zod's first targets will be. Now you need to tell Mrs. Kent what is happening. We can't call because the minute she hears something is wrong with Clark, she's going to head straight back to Smallville."

Chloe couldn't disagree with that. They both knew Mrs. Kent too well. "Okay, okay, I'm going," she nodded as she climbed into her car. "What about you?" She turned to Lois who was making her way to her own vehicle.

"I'm going to the mansion," Lois replied. "Before _Kal_ does something Clark regrets."

"Where's Lex?" Lana asked, her voice shaking when she saw Zod return without Lex.

The being wearing Oliver Queen's face ignored her question as he entered the parlor where Lana Lang had been sequestered with Milton Fine since their arrival at the mansion earlier today. The Kryptonian had flown back to Smallville, vaguely aware that Kal-El was on route to the same destination. Having no desire to deal with Jor-El's son just yet and content to let the young man occupy himself with his own agenda involving Luthor, Zod left Kal-El to his devices while he carried out his plans to reshape the face of the planet. In truth, Zod wasn't entirely trusting of this personality change that Kal-El had undergone despite the Construct's assurances.

However, if the red kryptonite kept Kal-El out of the equation for now, all the better. When the Earth was molded into its new configuration, the general would then turn his attention to the permanence of Kal-El's transformation and decide what was to be done with the boy. For now however, Zod had bigger concerns on his mind.

"I have it," he announced to Fine upon entering the room.

"Where's Lex?" Lana demanded again, determined to have an answer.

The Construct left the piano and approached Zod who revealed the container sitting on his upturned palm. Already artificial sentience was examining the contents, determining whether or not the base compounds were still mutable for its purpose. As Zod presented the receptacle, the Construct reached for it, its fingers becoming the slick, dark ooze of its true self, before absorbing the container an its contents into the whole again. Disappearing into the Construct's form, the container vanished as if it had never been that.

"It is done," the Construct announced triumphantly.

"Good," Zod said with approval. "Our last attempt significantly reduced the power output capable. We will need to restore it if this to proceed."

"I have already considered it," the Construct answered automatically. "Their nuclear reactors may be inefficient but are capable of producing the power requirements we require. I will be able to siphon and refine the energy flow to reignite the device's core matrix."

"Then we shall proceed," Zod answered, walking towards the door, barely giving Lana a second glance.

Lana listened to the conversation, feeling helpless and frustrated. It was bad enough that she barely registered enough to engender a response from the duo but she had suffered a front row seat the last time Zod had tried to destroy the Earth and watching it unfold again was a nightmare she hoped to never endure. Realizing that neither would address her, Lana held back her questions and prayed that they would leave and forget about her. At least then she could try and get help.

"What about her?" the Construct dashed Lana's hopes of being forgotten with that one question.

"Kal-El will be here shortly," Zod continuing his departure. "Leave her and Lex to him. It will entertain the boy while we take care of the task at home."

Lana latched onto that piece of information with hope. Lex was still alive.

No sooner than Zod and the Construct had left, Lana was scrambling for the nearest telephone. She debated with who to call at first and finally decided on the Kent home, praying that Mrs. Kent might be able to reason with Clark but received no answer. As it was, it was a minor miracle that she was able to get through at all considering the state of ruin Zod and Fine had left the mansion in. She was about Chloe when suddenly, the line went dead.

"Who you calling Lana?" She heard a familiar voice behind her. The phone line was smoldering.

Turning around, Lana dropped the phone on the floor when she saw Clark with Lex. Lex's face was covered in cuts and bruises; the collar of his shirt was wet with blood. Her jaw dropped open as she saw Clark holding him by the throat as he dragged Lex across the floor into the room.

"OH MY GOD LEX!" She cried out and hurried towards them both.

"Lana get away from here!" Lex tried to halt her progress with little success. He didn't care what happened to him but he wouldn't let her risk her life or that of their child's. "Get help!"

"Yeah Lana," Kal laughed. "I'll give you a head start while I snap his neck." His fingers tightened around Lex's throat, crushing his windpipe against his spine with ease as he stood by the door.

"Clark please!" Lana begged, "don't hurt him!" Her face contorted with despair as Clark kept his iron grip around Lex's throat, despite the billionaire's best efforts to pry off his fingers.

"Don't hurt him?" Kal looked at her incredulously. "Are you kidding Lana? If anyone has it coming, it's Lex and it's about time too, he's earned this payback."

"Because of me Clark?" Lana demanded, tears running down her cheeks in desperation. "You hate him this much because I went to him, because I'm carrying _his_ baby?" She spat.

"Do you ever get tired of thinking its all about you Lana?" Kal laughed and threw Lex against the long leather seat. Lex hit the back of the sofa with such force of impact that he tipped it over himself while Kal made a show of dusting his palms.

"LEX!" Lana ran to his side.

"Its' nothing personal Lana," Kal watched her crouching over Lex like the simpering cow she was. How could he have ever cared for someone so weak? "I just don't like anyone touching my stuff and you were _my_ stuff." He said rounding the upended leather sofa and seeing Lex trying to crawl from under it. Grabbing Lex by the shoulder, he dragged the man from under the heavy furniture and threw him against the far wall before Lex could shake off his disorientation.

"CLARK STOP IT!" Lana shouted in fury. "You were the one who broke it off!"

Kal was across the floor and at her side in a second. A hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet where she was still crouched from her failed attempt to help Lex.

"That's doesn't does it Lex?" He glared at Lex as he clenched a handful of Lana's hair. She was crying out in pain. "Guys don't screw around with their friend's girl!"

"LEAVE HER ALONE CLARK!" Lex shouted enraged. Lana's cry of pain had snapped out of his dazed state. "It's me you hate! I'm the one who betrayed our friendship by my feelings for Lana! Not her! ME!"

Kale's expression darkened as his eyes turned red and Lex was blasted against the wall with a burst of heat that made him scream. Not enough to incinerate but just enough to slowly cook his flesh in a prolonged and agonizing death.

"CLARK, PLEASE STOP!!!" Lana begged as she saw Lex writhing in pain. She could see his skin turning red and blisters appearing his bald skull. "I'm begging you Clark! PLEASE!!!" Lana was sobbing desperately as she watched her lover's agony.

"So this is what you're doing instead of coming home to me?" Lois Lane asked as she walked into the room, having worked her way through the debris covered hallways. It hadn't been hard to find Clark.

All she had to do was follow the screaming.

Pretending to look nonplussed by what was happening. Lois surveyed the room and thanked the heavens that she had arrived just in time even though she was certain that both Lex or Lana would have a different interpretation of her timing.

"Lois?" Kal stared at her with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I heard my boyfriend went running after his old flame and that kind of pissed me off Kal." She looked at him with an expression that bordered on jealousy and bemusement. Lois hoped she was pulling it off for Lana and Lex's sake. "I thought it was you and me forever? What are you doing here with _her_?"

Kal smirked. "Lois, I'm just taking care of some business."

"Really?" Lois approached Kal, giving Lana a brief glance as she shoved the other woman roughly out of Kal's grip. Kal started to turn to Lana as he lost his hold on her but Lois grabbed his jaw and made him look her in the eye. "I don't like to share you _Kal_."

"I'm all yours baby, you know that," Kal grinned, liking her rougher side. He had seen it all morning and it was quite the turn on.

Lois pulled him to her mouth roughly, biting his lower lip as she engaged him in a lusty kiss. This had to be surreal for Lex and Lana but Lois could think of no other way to get him away from them. Right now, his inhibitions were lowered and the only thing his brain was responding to was violence and sex. Violence was out of her league, sex was not.

Pulling away from him, Lois whispered in his ear, "come on Kal, let's go have some fun. You can come back to this later. I'll even let you tie me up if you like?" Lois' eyes glimmered with mischief.

The want for her was too much for his splayed open desires to resist and with a grin; Kal pulled Lois to him, sweeping her off her feet in a blink of an eye. Determined to keep his attention fixed on more sexual pursuit, she kissed him again, her tongue sliding past this teeth as her arms wrapped around his neck and her nails raked through his hair.

Lana said nothing to any of this, suspecting Lois' intent and taking the chance the woman had given her and Lex without question. She tried not to look at Lois and Clark making out in front of them and knew that Lois was doing her best to distract Clark from hurting Lex any further.

"I like it when you're rough Lois," Kal laughed, feeling the same urgency in his body that had caused him to spend most of the morning making love to Lois. Lana and Lex were distant thoughts now.

"Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet," Lois teased, devouring his neck passionately. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

Without hesitation, Kal was soon spiriting them back to the Kent farm, leaving the mansion behind in a burst of speed.

_Thank God_, Lana thought as she saw them both leave. Without missing a beat, Lana was hurrying towards Lex's side.

"LEX!" She called out reaching her lover. "Lex, speak to me!"

Lex was trembling in pain. His skin was bright red as if he had been scalded and Lana knew she had to get him to a hospital for help. However, right now, the most important thing to do was to put as much distance between them and the mansion.

"Lana," Lex opened his eyes and looked at her. "Are you alright?" He asked weakly.

"I'm fine Lex," Lana answered. "Lex, you have to get up. We need to get away from here while we still can."

Ignoring the pain, Lex nodded weakly and forced himself upright. Lana was right. Their only chance right now was to get as far away from Smallville and disappear if necessary to escape Kal-El, the thing that had taken over Clark Kent's body.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER NINE: KRYPTONITE FLAVOURED

One thing Lois Lane had decided in all this; Kal was murder on her wardrobe.

She should have expected it and was more or less prepared but Lois Lane had thought that they would make it up the stairs at least. No sooner than they had entered the house, Lois found herself locked in another series of passionate kisses. Despite the ache in her limbs from their love making session earlier in the day, it was to Lois' chagrin how quickly she reacted to his demanding mouth. Even though her mind told her that this wasn't Clark, her body couldn't tell the difference and reacted to his sensual plunder.

"Kal," Lois said trying to draw him upstairs at least. As titillating as it was to make love on the kitchen table again, Lois had too much respect for Martha Kent's home for a repeat performance of their earlier coupling. "Let's take this upstairs." She pulled away from his mouth, breathing hard.

"Come on Lois," he grinned with that smirk that would crumble a lesser woman's resolve. "Mom's not going to be home until tomorrow," he reached for her leg at superspeed and pulled.

Losing her footing, she tumbled against the staircase and turned around, "Kal!" She growled. "You could have i_hurt/i _ me."

"You like it rough Lois," he was on her in seconds.

"Not that rough," she grumbled, forgetting that she needed to occupy his attention because Lois' natural attrition demanded a response at the manhandling. Pushing him off had little or no affect and seemed to arouse Kal even more.

"Bullshit," he snorted and pried her legs apart, nestling comfortably between them with ease. "You didn't complain earlier." His mouth latched onto hers again forcefully.

"Well maybe I don't like being thought of as a sure thing," Lois retorted before his tongue silenced her and he was using his strength to pin her down.

"Only for me Lois," he rumbled in a low voice, his fingers sliding up her thigh and disappearing beneath the hem of skirt she was wearing.

Christ, she felt his touch and fought to remember that this wasn't Clark, this was Kal. Kal who was Clark unleashed, her scattered mind reminded as she felt his fingers hooking around the silk of her underwear. His strength was such that only a tug was needed before she felt herself exposed. Although her mind was swirling with thoughts of Krypton, of Red K and Kal-El, all it took for her to forget everything, was a powerful thrust of his growing erection against her moist, bare flesh.

Almost unconsciously, Lois was pulling at his shirt, sliding her hands under the fabric to rake her nails across his back. He groaned at the contact, sending delicious sensations against the tender flesh of her neck as he devoured her with renewed intensity. Kal couldn't have enough of her and it wasn't just the sex that made him want Lois so much. It was the acceptance. She knew what he was, knew all about his powers and didn't care. She just wanted him and finally he was the man she deserved, one who could allow her to relinquish the control she liked to wield so much.

Oh God, how could she think when Kal was doing this to her? With fleeting shame, Lois realized that this was part of the plan, to keep Kal distracted but it was so easy to become lost in the part when she felt his fingers exploring the heat between her legs, teasing wet folds apart to torture her with his wonderfully tactile touch. Against her will, she was calling out his name, not Clark's name and she so wished it was Clark, but Kal's. He had pushed her down completely and was savaging her body with bites and kisses, alternating between her mouth and neck, giving her neither time to breathe or to protest, only surrender.

"God Lois," he whispered in her ear, "you're so fucking wet. I gotta taste you."

Her breath caught as he moved down her body so fast Lois didn't even have time to respond. All she knew was that in a blink of an eye, his breath was warming her thighs and then she couldn't think at all because…._oh god….oh god…oh god…_he was tasting her. The first flick of his tongue and Lois was whimpering with sensations so raw and incredible she didn't think was possible to feel this good.

It didn't help that his performance came with a raunchy commentary.

"Hmmm Lois," Kal smiled triumphantly when the tongue he darted deep inside her and the folds he caressed with his lips, produced another pleasured cry. "I could eat you all day. You taste so good."

Eyes shut; Lois hated the smugness in his voice but could do little else in the face of such aching pleasure. He worked her good, teasing and tasting. Alternating between lips and tongue, until Lois couldn't remember her name much less the plan she and Chloe had concocted. She knew this was about power, about domination and Lois hated it that he was so forceful but she hated herself more for responding to it.

"Kal," she begged as he pushed her nearer and nearer to the brink, until she could think of nothing but his lips and what they were doing to her. "Oh God Kal….please don't stop."

"Never happen," Kal smiled but pulled away from her nonetheless. Relishing the sob of disappointment that escaped her at being denied so close to orgasm, Kal claimed her mouth as he unbuttoned his pants and freed himself. "Taste yourself," he muttered into her throat as his tongue slid into her mouth the same time as his cock penetrated her. She was so wet he slid all the way in without pause, not that he was giving her much opportunity to get accustomed to the intrusion. She could take him, he knew from their earlier encounters.

Lois gave in to the juggernaut pace he set inside of her as if there had ever been any question that she wouldn't. Too much of him looked like Clark for her to be able to resist although his raunchy sexuality made her wish for the man she loved even if the sex was incredible. There was something missing. Heart perhaps and even as she surrendered to the pleasure he made her feel, she knew she could never love Kal. Not like she loved Clark.

"You're such a sweet thing to fuck Lois," Kal grunted in her ear as he continued to thrust hard, each stroke driving her deeper into the uneven stairs. She would have bruises for sure but Kal liked that idea as well, being able to mark her. Holding her ankle firmly against his shoulder, he heard her whimpers and began to tease.

"You want me to stop Lois?" His eyes burned red with menace.

"God no," she pleaded, feeling herself near the edge. She was so close…

Letting her leg slide off to his side, Kal didn't halt in his rhythm as he lowered his lips to her ear and whispered. "Then don't _ever_ interfere in my business with Lex again."

It took a few hours for Lionel to fill Lois' order but eventually Chloe was able to sneak into the loft and place the package where Lois had instructed. Of course, she also had some additional insurance in her hand bag having experienced Clark in Red K mode before. Unfortunately, Chloe sensed that if Clark or rather Kal found her here, he would be expecting a trick. After all, she had used kryptonite to subdue him before and if what she had heard from Lana was any indication about his disposition, Kal had a mean streak a mile wide for anyone who had _ever_ crossed him.

Every time Clark came under the influence of red kryptonite, it drove home to Chloe just how fortunate that they all were that Clark Kent was the man he was. With his powers, he could have easily been so much worse (case in point; Zod) and times like this, when they were face to face with his alter ego, Chloe wished she had told Clark more how much he was appreciated. Tucking the device beneath the sofa where Lois had instructed, Chloe prepared to make her departure from the Kent farm, hoping that Lois could do what was necessary before it was too late for them all.

So far, there was no word from Zod or Fine but this only meant that they were in the eye of the storm. Whatever Zod was planning would happen soon. Chloe required no clairvoyance to know that. They needed to get Clark back before it was too late. Fortunately, when Lionel had told them about Kal and Lex, Lois had suspected that Kal might be looking for a little bit of payback in regards to the bald billionaire. After all, Lex had stolen away Lana and while Clark might have resolved his feelings about Lana, his anger at Lex was almost as difficult to dispel.

Lois had arrived just in time to save them both, so Chloe heard from Lana who was at this moment flying away from Smallville with Lex in a Luthor Corp Jet. They were trying to outrun the Kryptonian, unaware that the danger Zod posed would ensure there was no place on the planet that ianyone/i could hide for long. Lionel had driven to Topeka to intercept Martha and tell her what was going on. No matter what she thought of the man, Chloe knew that Lionel's feelings for Martha were genuine. She would be safe with him.

Thank God, Jimmy was visiting his folks out of town.

Leaving Lois upstairs, Kal had come down to the kitchen to raid the fridge after yet another marathon session of love making. God, Lois was a goddamn hellion in the sack. Kal had always suspected as much and was certain that even Clark, knew it on some level too. In any case, Kal figured he had Lois pretty much under control now. She was still trying to manipulate him but it was really he who was pulling the strings.

Really quite easy to do when they i_loved/i _ you, he snorted.

Look at Chloe and Lana, how many hoops had he made them jump before they got tired of it? Even then Kal knew it would be easy to get Lana back if he wanted, just as it would be easy to get Chloe on side if she gave him trouble. Just give Blondie the slightest hint of hope that he might give her the time of day and she'd be on her knees begging. If he ever got tired of Lois, he might consider it.

_iNever/i_, he thought confidently, draining a carton of juice as he stood in front of the fridge.

Looking at the ceiling of kitchen, he could see Lois lying on his bed upsairs, no doubt recovering, he thought with a smug smile. Suddenly, his hearing picked up something else and Kal's enhanced vision began searching for the source. He heard movement but discerned quickly that it wasn't in the house but it was close thought….

Chloe.

And she was sneaking around.

Lois heard the slamming of the door and immediately sat up in bed.

"Kal?" She called out and heard the barn door opening and closing with similar speed.

Forcing her aching limbs to move, Lois jumped out of bed and winced. If it wasn't for the fact that her father was a general who believed no daughter of his wouldn't be able to make a ten mile hike, Lois would hardly be able to move. Grabbing a shirt, she slipped it over her shoulders and hurried out of the room, hoping Chloe had the sense to get out before Kal had noticed her.

"Hey Chloe," Kal greeted her as he came to a stop at the top of the stairs leading into his loft. Judging by he expression of surprise on her face, it was clear that he had caught her doing something she shouldn't. "What are you doing here?" He asked with a disarming smile.

"Hey Kal, well I dropped by to see you and I thought I'd try here first," Chloe smiled brightly, wishing she could have come up with a better excuse than that.

"Really?" He stared her down with a little smile and raised brow. "What about?"

"To see if you wanted to go that midnight showing of Star Wars in Metropolis next week but now that I'm here, I can also critique those cute boxers." She laughed nervously and knew inwardly, he wasn't fooled.

"Its not like you mind iright/i Chloe?" Kal teased and let him high powered gaze run a perfunctory examination over her. He found what he was looking for almost immediately and took a cautionary step back without giving away himself way.

"What?" Chloe's hazel eyes caught his blue with a indignation.

He knew that would make her bite.

"Next time you sneak up on me with the meteor rock, _don't_ call me Kal."

Eyes flashing crimson, a blast of heat enveloped the bag hanging off Chloe's shoulder. The intense heat ignited the leather and Chloe let out a soft cry of fright as she yanked it from her shoulder and onto the floor. Once it had hit the floor boards, Kal intensified the beam of heat and incinerated the bag and all its contents in a small burst of fire. The tiny explosion left behind nothing but ash and smoke which cleared away soon enough.

"Clark…" Chloe stammered, trying to get past him in a futile effort. "You're not yourself."

"I'm just fine," he grabbed her wrist and squeezed.

"Clark!" She squealed in pain at the vise like grip. "You're hurting me!"

"God!" Kal rolled his eyes, "did it ever occur to you that the reason I'm with Lois and not with you and Lana is because of the whining? I'm sick of listening to both of you whine about everything. I don't need the grief!"

i_It isn't Clark/i_, Chloe told herself as the words stung against her skin like barbed wire. Its Kal and the Red K. "Let me go!" She tried to wrench her hand free and suddenly, she was falling backwards.

"CHLOE!" Lois screamed as she entered the barn and saw Chloe stumbled against the railing on the stairs before going over it a split second later. "KAL, grab her!" She shouted, hoping that there was still enough of Clark left in Kal to do something.

Out of reflex more than anything else, Kal raced down the stairs and was there to catch Chloe before she hit the ground.

Lois didn't waste the opportunity, knowing that she had a very narrow window of opportunity to act. She had hoped to come up here later in the night but Chloe's discovery had thrown that plan out of whack. Reaching the loft as Kal was trying to figure out what she was doing. Lois prayed that Chloe had left everything where she had instructed. Reaching behind the sofa, her hand wrapped around it, just as she felt her hair swaying with a gust of wind.

"What's going on Lois?" Kal demanded.

Lois turned around with the gun in her hand and faced him.

"What's going on Kal is that you're no yourself." She said firmly.

"And you think a gun is going to stop me?" He almost laughed.

Lois took aim. "Don't make me find out if you're faster than a bullet."

"You're gonna shoot me?" He took a step forward, challenging her.

"I want Clark back," Lois said icily. "Do you hear me. CLARK."

"Didn't sound like it a short time ago," his expression hardened. "In fact, Clark was the furthest thing from your mind. It was me that made you come Lois, not Clark. i_Me/i_" He sneered crudely. "Clark would never make you feel that way."

"Don't mistake sex for love Kal. You're good in the sack I'll give you that but I don't love you and I i_never/i_ will. I want Clark _back_."

His eyes narrowed and Lois could see the rage overcoming him. The same fury that he had unleashed upon Lana was about to be visited on her. Not giving him the chance to overpower her because even with the weapon, he could manage it quite easily, Lois pulled the trigger and prayed that all those lessons the general had given her was not a waste. The berretta dispensed its payload with a powerful bang and Lois closed her eyes as Kal made no attempt to avoid the shot.

The bullet slammed into his shoulder, meteor rock being no substitute for lead, shattered the instant it hit bone. Fragments spread throughout his left shoulder, forcing Kal to let out a cry of pain as he hit the floor. Lois saw the blood splattering across his skin and felt her stomach hollow in anguish at having been forced to do this.

There was no choice. Jor-El had revealed that it required Kryptonian strength to activate the device enough to penetrate Clark's skin. Neither she nor Chloe could have managed it. Kryptonite would weaken his skin enough for them to activate the device. Furthermore, two many people had tried to use pieces of green meteor rock to weaken him. Kal would expect an attack to come at him that way. Threatening him with a gun would only provoke Kal's supreme arrogance.

"You bitch!" Kal screamed at her in pain, clutching his bleeding shoulder. She saw the green tinge of his skin and knew that they hadn't much time.

"Chloe!" Lois called as she ran back to the couch and retrieved the kryptonian device.

Chloe was recovering from her near grievous fall when she saw Lois make her play and remained in the background until it was over. Chloe didn't know if Kal was smart enough to take a hostage but she certainly had not want to find out. Fortunately, as expected, Kal's arrogance had rushed him into point blank range of the kryptonite bullet that Lionel had made for the gun in Lois' hand.

Hearing Kal's indignant scream, Chloe was on the move. Clutching her aching wrist, she arrived on the floor of the loft to see Kal on the floor, blood pooling under him.

"Oh my God…"

"I hit him in the shoulder," Lois cut her off as she leaned over Kal.

"Get away from me!" Kal spat at her. Green veins were crisscrossing his body and Lois ignored that this was happening to Clark as well as the arrogant alter ego in current possession of his body.

"Shut up Kal," Lois snapped and pinned down one of his arms with her knee. "Chloe, hold him down."

"What are you doing to me you bitch!" Kal demanded.

Lois ignored him, perfectly aware that if this failed, he would kill them both. Chloe gave Lois a look of admiration, wondering how she could stand seeing Clark like this, even if it was Kal's words. Chloe had never been able to stand it. Trying not to look down at him, Chloe held Kal down by the shoulders and turned away.

"Ready?" Lois asked quickly, bracing herself.

"Do it," Chloe nodded, strengthening her grip, ignoring the pain in her wrist.

"LET ME GO!" Kal struggled one last time to break free but the kryptonite (the green version) was doing its job well. His struggle was weak at best.

"For the last time," Lois said moving the device over the bleeding wound where skin was already broken, "SHUT UP!"

Lois brought down the suction cap on the open wound and depressed the trigger. A low whine filled the barn at the same time Kal started crying out in pain. It took all the strength Lois and Chloe had to keep the Kryptonian pinned to the ground as she struggled. Her eyes fixed on his, Lois saw nothing in Kal's eyes but betrayal and knew that she never ever wanted to see that look in his eyes again, from Kal _or_ Clark.

Suddenly, something popped and Lois saw the bulb like end of the device filled with blood. At first she could see only the bullet but then other sediments began to appear in the thick liquid. Fragments so small, they almost look like dust. She saw them cling to the side of the glass and realized that this was the Red K.

"Oh God Chloe," Lois stared at it amidst Kal's howling. "I think its working!"

Suddenly, with a final cry of pain the whining stop and Kal no longer struggled. Lois withdrew the device, tossing it away. The green veins on Kal's skin had vanished and his color was back to normal.

"Did it work?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know," Lois shook her head, watching in amazement as skin began to repair itself. If this hadn't worked, she and Chloe were in a lot of trouble and there would be nowhere to run.

"Clark?" Lois brushed the strands of wet hair out of his face as he lay on the ground, eyes closed, seemingly exhausted. "Come on Smallville," she prompted, using the usual flippant tone he was familiar with. "Give me a sign here."

Clark Kent opened his eyes and felt the nightmare he had been suffering fall away from him like the bad dream he knew it wasn't. Lois was staring at him and Clark managed a soft prayer of thanks as he looked at her without the red fog over his mind. He couldn't even begin to process the rest of what he knew had happened but at least, Lois was here and knowing that, helped him to deal.

"Figures," he snorted, too weak to move but basking in Lois' face above him. "You always have to be _on top_."


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER TEN: WELCOME BACK CLARK

Zod was busy.

Since his departure from Smallville, the General and his servant had travelled hundreds of miles, from Los Vegas to Monticello and finally to this facility, two miles outside of Metropolis. It seemed fitting that the final phase of restoring the black ship's hard drive would take place so close to its original point of arrival on this planet. With the moon high in the night sky, Zod and the Construct set down in the main compound of the Metropolis Nuclear Facility.

With the capacity of the boiling water reactors lowered to half power at night, there was no need for a full crew to run the station and only one shift was in operation along with a handful of security guards to ensure the facility protection. Zod and the Construct were detected almost immediately upon landing in the compound. Strobe lights fell upon them from guards on high towers. The facility was almost prison like in its fortifications.

"Hold it right there!" Someone shouted from a tower. "You're trespassing."

"Continue to the reactor core," Zod commanded the Construct. "I will tend to this."

"Yes Master," the Construct nodded and proceeded across the concrete floor towards the nearest entry into the building.

"HALT!" The guard shouted again impotently but his demand barely rated a second glance from the Construct.

Zod wasted no time with warnings. His eyes blazed red and the air between the tower and himself shuddered with heat just before the blast consumed it entirely, sending fragments in all directions. After that, alarms screamed throughout the facility as more guards appeared with their weapons, opening fire.

Elsewhere, his enhanced hearing became aware of voices being ushered out of the building evacuation procedures were initiated. With amusement, he noted that some of the frightened voices believed there was a terrorist attack underway while others thought some natural calamity had taken away. Zod listened to this cacophony as sound as he was assailed by a barrage of lead projectiles. They bounced off him harmless and drew in a deep breath, before exhaling with one, forceful puff.

The humans attacking him were hurled through the air, flung about carelessly as if they had been borne away by a tornado. The General did not pause to see where they had landed. It wasn't necessary really since none of them were moving once he was done. Workers in the facility had wisely departed the premises, careful not to get in his way which was just as well, Zod had no time to deal with the primitives of this world when there was much to do.

He would not be robbed off his dream again, now when there was nothing to stop him from accomplishing it.

The path to the reactor core was not difficult to find after Zod stepped into the door leading into the reactor building. As anticipated, he had a trail of bodies to follow, even if he did not use his x-ray vision to detect the Construct. Those who did not die by the Construct's bare hands were nothing more than charred remains of ash. The emergency klaxons continued to whine with warning lights flashing.

It did not take him long before he reached the control rod drives. Workers in white laboratory coats and fragile environmental suits, lay strew about unmoving.

"They tried to stop me," the Construct explained.

"They're irrelevant," Zod retorted indifferently. "Get on with it." He ordered, a hint of impatience creeping into his disposition. Had they been on any civilized world, this rigmarole would be unnecessary. This third rate backwater with its primitive nuclear generators convinced Zod that the race needed expunging for its sheer ineptitude.

The Construct nodded and took the hard drive from inside his coat pocket. The last two attempts had returned it to its hexagonal shape but it still lacked spark needed for it to begin generating its own formidable power reserves. What twenty nuclear facilities would take a hundred years to accomplish, this small piece of technology could produce by the _hour_. The components were there, all it required was a starter.

Clutching it in one hand, the Construct reached into the reactor core with the other and began draining it of all its powers. Immediately, the lights around them started to dim as the reactor began to hum louder and louder. The Construct began to glow with white light as he acted as a conduit, drawing out all the power and funneling it into the hard drive which began spinning on the top of his palm.

Across its smooth dark surface, symbols came to life with a soothing amber glow.

He woke up on the couch.

Clark Kent looked up and saw Lois' head lolled against her shoulder, snoring lightly as his own head rested against her lap. Eyes shifting across the room, Clark found himself in the living room of the Kent house. Next to him, Clark saw Chloe curled up in Jonathan's chair, in a similar state of slumber. Glancing out the window, Clark saw that it was dark outside and tried to remember what had happened. As his memories flooded his mind, Clark attempted to sit up and winced at the pain. Looking down at his bare shoulder, he could feel the ache from a now completely healed gunshot wound which served to remind him how mortal he was despite of his invulnerability.

It was not the first time he had been shot nor was it the first scar from a bullet he had ever received but it still struck him to see it nonetheless. An image returned to him in a flash and once again Clark was wincing at the memory of Lois standing before him, pointing a gun and completely unafraid to use it.

God, he had always known she could be strong but until now, he never knew how steely her determination could be. Clark didn't know if he had that much iron will.

For a few minutes, Clark did nothing but watch the two women who had risked everything to save him.

He watched and let the disturbing events of the day seep into his skin like the blood in wood. The images came slowly at first and then they flashed with such speed, that Clark was overwhelmed. However, being overwhelmed was nowhere as bad as actually remembering it for real, being able to reference it like any other memory, even if it wasn't him in control. Knowing red kryptonite was responsible did not alleviate his anguish. Every time this happened, it was like waking from a bad dream, except it wasn't a dream and he didn't have the luxury of forgetting all that had happened.

And no one else around him did either.

The last time he was under the influence, he had hurt everyone he cared for and this time, this time his behavior was so much worse. He looked at Lois who was wearing one of his plaid shirts and a pair of Martha's sweats and knew this was son because she didn't have any clothes left. Clark's stomach hollowed remembered why. He had torn them off her body when he took her repeatedly and even though she had submitted willingly and could not be held accountable for the responses of her body, Clark knew it had been a means to an end.

She had endured it because of him.

The thought made Clark sick to his stomach.

When Clark thought of all the times he had wanted to spend the night at her apartment, all the feelings she had inspired, the idea that he had taken her spread out over the kitchen table like some cheap tramp was beyond description. Clark had so wanted their first night together to be something special and now for the rest of her life, she'd have the memory of a scene straight out of some tawdry porn film as her first sexual experience with him.

Clark had also wanted to tell her the truth about his heritage, about being Kryptonian before taking that step so Lois would at least know what she was getting into. Clark felt cheated and worse yet, he felt as if he had betrayed Lois.

Then there was the other fear; that perhaps on some level his boldness as Kal would be something he'd never be able to live up to. Clark knew he'd never have the courage to be as bold with Lois as Kal had been. Kal had taken what he wanted and Lois had responded to it on some level. How could he ever be sure that it was Clark Kent she wanted sharing her bed, not Kal? It was a foolish thought and probably unfair considering what Lois had been willing to endure to get him back, but Clark's psyche was often a paradox of insecurity and confidence and this time he had good reason to fear.

Unable to stay in the room because his guilt felt like bile in his mouth, Clark lifted his head of Lois' lap, careful not to wake her or Chloe. He was still dressed in his boxers but right now, he didn't care. Leaving the two women in the house, Clark retreated to his sanctuary in the barn, the place where this whole nightmare had begun. He had yet to deal with the fact that Zod had taken over Oliver's body and now he had two Kryptonians to deal with instead of just one. It should have been his main priority but as he stared out into the moonlit night, all he could think about was what he had done in the last day.

Not just to Lois but Christ, to Lana and Lex. He had almost killed Lex and recoiled as he remembered what he had said to Lana, not to mention Chloe. Even if he was angry at Lana for her decision to be with Lex, she hadn't deserved the venomous words he had said to her. Nor had Chloe. Clark was mortified that he had rubbed her face in her unrequited feelings for him. Chloe had been there for him when he had felt completely alone. She did not deserve such humiliation.

No one did.

"Damn it!" Clark swore and lashed out, his fist snapping a support beam in half with a loud crack. Splinters went in all directions and Clark heard the slight heave of the beam above him. He wanted to scream in fury and outrage at what Fine had done to him. It wasn't fair! Everything had been going so great! He hadn't been this happy in so long. Why did these things keep happening to him? It was as if the price for these supposedly great powers was a state of perpetual misery where he continued to harm the people that he loved.

Lois. God, how could he ever face Lois?

"Hey Smallville."

And the misery just kept on coming it seemed.

"Lois," Clark turned around and saw her at the top of the steps, looking at him with concern. He was unable to meet her eyes for long, especially with images flashing in his mind of whispering cruel things in her ear while manhandling her like a slab of meat. Instead, Clark averted his gaze and went to the loft window staring at the cornfield swaying in the night's breeze.

"Smallville," Lois noted the look and guessed perceptively what was on his mind even if he hadn't said the words. Clark had the most expressive eyes of anyone she had ever met and from the first; her ability to read him had surprised even Lois who considered herself a good judge of character. Sometimes she could see straight through him and some times he was a mystery.

Today, it was more of one rather than the other.

"You should be resting. Getting shot up with red and green kryptonite in one day takes a lot of out of a person. You gotta get your strength back to deal with Zod." She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Her arms around his body felt good and the comfort she offered even more welcoming but Zod's name inspired nothing but hatred.

"Zod," Clark spat with disgust. "I guess that's not a bad idea considering I'm the one who let him go."

"Clark," Lois said gently even though she knew that there would be no easing their way through this. "You weren't yourself."

"Yes I was Lois," Clark retorted, turning around to face her. "Yes I was. Every time, I turn into Kal, it's always me! He's not another person Lois! He's the part of me that I don't dare show! All those feelings exist somewhere inside of me! I almost killed Lex and what I said to Lana…"

"Stop, please stop," Lois pleaded as she took his face in her hands and made him stop. It cut her life a knife, seeing those expressive eyes so filled with pain and anguish. Lois couldn't stand it. "Maybe part of Kal is you but he's a part you should never have to see. We all have a side of us that's just like him, aggressive, cruel and selfish. We're just lucky enough not to have to see it because of red kryptonite. I'm not angry at you Clark and none of the people who know you and love you, are angry for something Fine had no right to do to you."

Clark wanted so much to believe her. As much as he wished he could admit Kal was someone else, he couldn't. It would be a lie and Lois deserved the truth. He was every much Kal as Clark Kent was. "How can you say that Lois?" Clark blinked, eyes becoming moist with emotion. "I remember how I touched you, how I treated you. Lois, I was like an animal and what did to you…!" He faltered unable to say it.

God it hurt her seeing him like this. However seeing his pain gave Lois a sense of clarity she had never had about their relationship and making the realization gave her a sense of liberation as well as strength to do find the right words to say to him.

"I can say that because I love you Clark."

There. She had said it.

Even though Lois had known how deeply she had fallen for Clark, she had never felt brave enough to say it to him until now. She had thought speaking the words might jinx it somehow and things had been going so well between, Lois hadn't dared to risk it. So many relationships, full of hope and expectation had come crashing down because she had opened herself up to soon and the result had been heartache. Lois didn't want to happen with Clark. As happy as he had made her, Lois had become too conditioned to hurt to let herself become so vulnerable.

But if it meant that ridding him off the agony he was going through now, then she would shout it from the rooftops.

Clark's eyes widened in surprise. Staring into Lois' one hazel ones, he knew she wasn't lying. She did love him and Clark knew how he felt about her. So not like Lana where he had cultivated his feelings over time. All those years of yearning and dreaming, not seeing the forest for the trees. Coins in a piggy bank, he almost smiled. Lois' own words. He had been saving for a bike never realizing it was a Harley he was getting.

His love for Lois was so unexpected, it had struck him deaf, dumb and blind all at once. He had never imagined that she could make him happy let alone that he could fall for her.

In truth, Clark Kent never seen Lois Lane coming.

"I love you," Lois repeated, staring into his eyes. "I didn't realize how much until I thought I might lose you and I was prepared to move heaven and earth to get you back Clark. I didn't care if I had to play a part to keep Kal off balance, Clark. None of it mattered because the man I wanted, no the man I loved, for once needed me to save him. Clark, even when you were Kal, you still cared about me. I see that more than I see the guy who went all Sex God on me. The only thing that made me go through what I did was knowing that I'd get you back. Don't ever think for a moment that I don't love you because I do and I always will. You're in my heart Clark. That's all there is to it."

Clark embraced her hard, burying his face his hair. "God Lois," he whispered. "I am so sorry for everything I did. I never wanted to hurt you or anyone." Closing his eyes, the tears ran down his cheeks as he held her, not understanding what he had done do deserve this unconditional love from her, especially after how he had treated her. There were still deep wounds that needed healing between them but for right now, he could manage. When this business with Zod was done, he and Lois would need to mend.

Knowing that she loved him was enough. For now.

The hard drive was spinning harder now.

It spun so fast that one could not longer see any shape except a glowing orb of bright amber. It illuminated the darkened interior of the almost exhausted nuclear reactor. Zod saw the device approaching its fully functional capabilities and concluded that it wouldn't be long before he could use it to reshape the earth's crust and rebuild Krypton. This time, Kal-El would be at his side as an ally, a delicious bit of irony that was sure to cause Jor-El to spin in his grave.

If he had one that is.

The humming that had filled the air at the onset of the process had metamorphosed into a loud drone the more and more power was siphoned from the reactor core. As the Construct began diverting every available bit of energy out of the facility, other systems in the building began losing power. Electrical systems throughout the complex were failing, the emergency klaxons had fallen into silence and now the lights were flickering out one by one, like candles snuffed out by the wind.

"We're almost done General." The Construct announced.

"Finish it," Zod commanded.

As always, the Construct obeyed without question and retrieved his hand from the reactor as the hard drive devoured every last particle of energy left remaining. Zod watched dispassionately as the Construct too began to break down. The formidable energy contained in its matrix, being drained into the hard drive of the black ship. As the Construct began to disintegrate before the General's eyes, Zod reached down and reclaimed the device. It stopped spinning almost immediately upon contact. Falling dormant, Zod looked up long enough to see the Construct vanished into wave of blue energy, expanding outward and creating a volatile mix with the spent uranium rods.

Leaping into the air, Zod smashed through the ceiling of the complex as he felt the rumble of the earth beneath him. He flew straight into the atmosphere until clouds were beneath his feet and gave him a good view of the explosion as everything in a two mile radius was vaporized.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 11: THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER

After the gunshot and the removal of the red and green kryptonite from Clark Kent's body, the onus of Lois and Chloe's thoughts had been on his recovery. Kryptonian or not, a gunshot wound was a serious thing and though Chloe assured Lois that Clark claimed to be a fast healer, neither woman could rest easily until they saw his recovery for themselves. Restoring Clark Kent to his true personality had taken all their attention so it was forgivable that both were unaware what was taking place outside Smallville.

Chloe had fallen asleep on Jonathan Kent's favorite armchair at some point in the evening, exhausted from the day's events until she was rudely awakened by the ringing of her cell phone. Eyes snapping open to the electronic sound of Cyndi Lauper voice tearing shrill through her ears. Uttering a muffled curse because she didn't want to wake up Lois or for that matter Clark who had to be exhausted after his ordeal, Chloe immediately fumbled for her handbag to retrieve the phone. Fortunately, she noted as she flipped it open to receive the call, neither of them were in the room.

"Hello?" Chloe offered a groggy greeting as she blinked herself awake and sat up straighter in the chair.

"Chloe, what's happening? Is Clark alright?" Martha Kent's frantic voice demanded.

With an inward groan, Chloe rebuked herself for not calling the woman before this. She and Lois had been so wrapped up in dealing with Clark and the aftermath of the gunshot that they had neglected to call Martha.

"Clark's okay," Chloe replied immediately, guilty compelling her to reveal that piece of information before anything else. "We managed to get the Red K out of Clark," she explained. "He's fine now Mrs. Kent."

"Thank God!" Martha exclaimed with a near sob of gratitude deepening Chloe's guilt for not calling sooner. "When we heard about those nuclear reactors being destroyed, I thought Clark might have had something to do with it."

Chloe blinked. Nuclear reactors?

"Nuclear reactors?" she stuttered to catch up. "What nuclear reactors?"

"Haven't you heard?" Martha declared. "It's all over the news. At least three reactors have exploded in the last six hours. The last one was at Metropolis about an hour ago. The authorities haven't been able to explain why there's no fallout but they're calling it a terrorist attack. Lionel and I were sure that Zod has something to do with this."

He probably did, Chloe thought silently, not about to discount the coincidence. The last time the Kryptonian general had appeared on Earth, the planet suffered Dark Thursday. "Mrs. Kent I've got to go, I'll get Clark to call you as soon as possible. Stay by your phone."

"I should come home," Martha started to say when Chloe cut her off remembering Lois' warning about clearing the board for Clark when they returned him to his right mind.

"Mrs. Kent, you need stay where you are." Chloe said quickly. "It's safer that way. Zod might be gunning for people Clark cares about and you'd be top on his list."

Martha Kent had been down this road before and as much as she disliked the idea of staying away, she knew the warning Chloe gave was all too real. "You should make yourself scarce to Chloe," Martha reminded her, ever considerate of those who were important to her son.

"I've already been given my walking papers," Chloe assured her. "As soon as I can, I'll be heading out your way. See you soon, Mrs. Kent."

"See you Chloe and please have Clark call. I just need to hear his voice."

Understanding all too well, Chloe made her that promise and was determined to keep it.

Chloe wasted no time seeking out Lois and Clark once she had ended the call with Martha. It didn't surprise her to find the duo in the loft and surmised that considering what had transpired between the couple in the last 24 hours, that they had some talking to do. Chloe did so hope that Clark wouldn't blame himself for what was completely beyond his control. Unfortunately, Kal's intimacy with Lois had complicated matters and Chloe knew Clark all too well.

Brooding was definitely in the cards when this was all over.

"Hey you guys," Chloe announced herself as she climbed up the stairs, "you up here?"

Of course they were but it was only polite to ask.

_Chloe_.

Clark Kent felt another wave of shame as he heard his best friend's voice. Someone else to whom he had to apologize. Why did freeing his inhibitions have to turn him into such a complete bastard? Clark asked himself as he saw Chloe's familiar face appear. Locked in Lois' embrace as she tried her best to comfort him in light of what he had done, Clark pulled away as she saw Chloe.

"Hey Chloe," Clark greeted, trying to make his voice sound as normal as possible, instead of the despair he felt.

"Clark," Chloe smiled and hugged him warmly because the look on his face, showed him clearly needing absolution. She doubted a hug would be the remedy to all his guilt but it was the best she could manage right now. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Chloe," he started to apologize, not knowing what else to say because he remembered Kal's cruel words to her.

"Clark, its okay," Chloe stopped him just as Lois had and Clark wondered what he had done to deserve such unswerving affection from both of them. "I've been through the Red K dance, I know what its like…"

He begged to differ but took her words in the spirit it was intended.

"I just hope you know what you mean to me," Clark said staring into her hazel eyes, so much like Lois but not different as well. "I'd never hurt you," he lifted his eyes to Lois, "either of you."

"Smallville, it's cool." Lois assured him with an affection wink. "Now come on boys and girls," she said in an effort to move past this subject for now. As much as she wanted to comfort Clark and let him have time to deal with this, she remembered what Joe had said at the fortress and knew they were on the clock. "We've got bigger problems to deal with than _Kal_."

"Oh my God!" Chloe's eyes widened remembering the news that had been imparted to her. "Clark, your mother rang a short time ago. She told me that its been all over the news that at least three nuclear reactors have gone critical in the last few hours, including the one outside Metropolis."

"What?" Lois exclaimed with understandable horror. "Why aren't we glowing in the dark like the Toxic Avenger?"

"Clark, remember when that Zoner named Bern came after you?" Chloe spoke up, having considered the question before turning up here.

"Yeah," Clark retorted. How could he forget? Bern had killed Raya. "I remember and I think I know what you're getting at."

"Well if someone could fill me in, that would be just peachy," Lois quipped. "Remember, my secret decoder ring is still in the mail?" She gave them both impatient stares.

With a small laugh, Clark squeezed her hand because she could always make him smile. Perhaps that's why he enjoyed being with her so. Lois had a way of making things feel not so bad. In that way, she reminded him of Martha. "Sorry Lois," he gave her a conciliatory look. "Bern was a Zoner. A criminal from the …."

"Phantom Zone," Lois concluded. "Joe already filled me on the Phantom Zone and all the really cracked space eggs that got tossed into that little basket. So he was one of those guys who got out?"

"Joe?" Clark glanced at Chloe who merely shrugged and gave him the familiar expression of resignation the he had coined a 'Lois moment'. It was a look he and Chloe shared _a lot_.

"Your holographic dad or whatever his name is," Lois retorted and nudged him to continue.

Only Lois would come up with something like that and once again, Clark found a little smile despite his mood and the urgency of the situation. "Right," he decided to continue instead. "Bern escaped the Zone the last time I ran into Zod. He had to fill up on power by hitting nuclear power stations."

"Yeah," Chloe added, "worked his way all the way to Clark."

"Nice," Lois shrugged. "So we're assuming that this it's Zod hitting all those stations this time?"

"It's too much of a coincidence," Chloe met Clark's gaze.

"It is," Clark declared, having guessed why Zod might need the power. "Zod went to Lex's mansion to get the hard drive of the black ship, the one that Fine came in. That's what he used to cause Dark Thursday."

"Clark, he was going to use that thing to reshape Earth in Krypton's image," Chloe declared, remembering what Lana had told her about that whole business. "But didn't you destroy it?"

"I did and what was left, Bern drained of all its power." Clark answered. "But Lex didn't get rid of it. He kept what was left, probably to analyze it for Luthor Corp labs. Zod wanted it back and I'm guessing that he's used the power in the nuclear stations to fix it. If he doesn't, Fine will. Either way, to get it working again, they need power."

"Which would explain why none of the explosions have caused nuclear fallout," Chloe concluded. "There's been a lot of damage but no radiation, at least according to your mom."

"Well thank goodness for small favors," Lois snorted. "Look if he's powered up this thing from three reactors, then we got to find him before he decides to try again."

"_We_ aren't doing anything," Clark stated firmly. "I am. Lois, Chloe, you both need to get out of town. Head as far away from here as you can. Meet up with my mom and just stay away, I'm going to deal with Zod and I don't want any of you hurt."

"Clark," Lois protested. "You can't do this by yourself. You can't go up against Fine and Zod on your own."

"Lois," Chloe stepped in. "You said it yourself, Clark needs a level playing field."

"Oh I just knew you were going to throw that in my face," Lois grumbled, giving Chloe a dirty glare. "How can you stop them both?" She turned back to Clark, frightened for him and frustrated because there was nothing she could do to help.

"I've got my father's crystal," Clark said firmly, hiding his own anxiousness at facing Zod again. He had barely managed to survive the last time. He didn't want Lois to his doubt at whether he could defeat the general again. "It sent him back to the Zone once, it will do it again."

"Does he know about this crystal?" Lois inquired, trying to piece together everything she was hearing without asking twenty questions.

"Yeah," Clark answered reluctantly. "He knows about it."

"Clark you can't pull the same trick twice. From everything I've heard, this guy is a general with delusions of grandeur, a bad case of megalomania and some crazy ideas about planetary redecorating. If you're going to use that that thing on him, you better have some kind of plan or else he's gonna see you coming for miles." Lois pointed.

"Thanks Lois," Clark gave her a look. "I wasn't _quite_ nervous enough already."

"Well snap out of it farm boy!" She said swatting him on the arm. "The world needs saving and you're the only one who can do it. Fortunately, all is not lost."

"It isn't?" Both Chloe and Clark said in unison.

"You've got me," Lois smirked. "And I _do_ have a plan."

Zod returned to the Luthor Mansion and found it devoid of life.

There was no sign of Luthor or his female. No sign of Kal-El either. Kal-El had no interest in the rekindling of Krypton on his beloved Earth and Zod had no patience to explain to him that there would be no stopping the chain reaction he was about to put into effect. The hard drive of the alien ship now fully restored awaited use and it was only Zod's sense of irony that compelled him to return to this place to begin the rebirth of Earth in the image of Krypton.

Wearing the face of Oliver Queen, Zod made his way through the debris covered path he had created when he first came to the mansion. The destruction remained untouched, with bodies still lying amongst the rubble as he walked through the corridor. He wondered where Kal-El was and wondered if he had taken Luthor's female for himself. Zod recalled he had feelings for the girl from their last encounter. No matter, Kal-El would come to him soon enough when he set the process for Earth's metamorphosis into motion.

Arriving at the parlor where he had left Lex Luthor and Lana Lang, Zod walked to the wooden desk now covered in a film of dust. Lowering himself into the leather chair, the Kryptonian general lifted the lid of Luthor's computer laptop and waited patiently when the screen came to life a second later. Once the primitive data unit was functional, he reached into his jacket and retrieved the hexagonal hard drive once again. Entering the activation sequence against the touch sensitive pads on the device, Zod allowed himself a smug smile when he saw its symbols illuminate with amber light.

"Shall we try again," he said to himself as he placed the device above the laptop's hard drive and with a wave of his hand set it on its course. It began to spin as before but this time, its effect could be seen as Kryptonian symbols filled the computer screen in rapid, seemingly out of control sequences.

The hard drive began to spin faster, sending Kryptonian programming into the world's communications network, overriding every firewall, security program and encryption barrier in existence. Zod did not have to see the panic being caused by these primitives as they tried to understand who had taken control of their computers, computers which controlled orbital defensive satellites above the planet surface. The Kryptonian programming would reach the swarm of hardware currently above the Earth, modifying its purpose for something grander than its original designers had intended.

Sitting back in the leather chair, he relaxed for a moment, watching the symbols flashing across the screen with even greater speed and waiting for all the satellites revolving around the Earth, realigned to direct their aim towards the planetary crust. Tectonic plates would begin to shift, shuddered out of billions of years of formation and on a sub atomic level, the geological structure of the Earth began its sudden change.

Across the planet, the air filled with a sharp whine.

Loud and penetrating, there was not a human alive who did not react to the screeching noise that came from above. Those who lived through Dark Thursday would also recognize the sound almost immediately. They would remember that the sound had been only the precursor to an even more terrifying symptom of Earth's coming demise.

Earthquakes.

As the ground began to rumble and the world wide panic spread, Zod remained where he was in his leather seat. He need do nothing but exult in the chaos, armed with the knowledge that in a matter of hours, the Earth would tear itself apart taking on a new shape and the human race, save for a select few, would be little more than a footnote in the history of New Krypton.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER TWELVE: ARMAGEDDON KNOCKING

The minute the sound screeched through her ears, forcing her hands over them in reaction, Chloe knew what it was.

Lois and Clark had the same reaction within the confines of the barn, Clark worst of all because his hypersensitive hearing amplified the sound. He doubled over in pain, caught by surprise Chloe suspected, while Lois, forgetting her own discomfort had automatically come to his aid. The sound was piercing but would not last long. This too, she knew from experience. The last time she had encountered it Clark had was trapped in the Phantom Zone and Lois had been unconscious, near dead from the planet crash Fine had caused to murder both her and Martha.

"What the hell is that?" Lois demanded out as she tried to help Clark.

Chloe didn't answer because her voice would be competing against that awful screech and it would take too long to explain. Best to wait it out. Instead, she shifted her eyes to Clark, hoping that he would adjust his focus as he often did when overpowered by too much stimuli. To her and Lois, this was uncomfortable, for Clark, it had to be painful.

It took Clark a few seconds to shut it out but by the time he did, the noise had died as suddenly as it began. Straightening up and lowering his hands from his ears, he saw Chloe to do the same. Her expression was strangely devoid of surprised and seemed almost as if she expected the silence. With a flash of insight, it occurred to him she knew what this was.

"Chloe," Clark stared at her. "What just happened?"

"Wait for it," Chloe said, wanting to know for certain if she was right. The next few seconds would confirm it.

"Wait for what?" Lois blurted out because the word 'wait' was as foreign to her as 'tact'.

It started subtly at first, slowly intensifying until Chloe could feel tremor pass through the soles of her feet, travelling through her bones and up her spine. With that sensation overtaking them all, there was no longer any denying it. Around them, the barn began to shudder and if Clark didn't know what it was then, he certainly knew it by the time the first jar of old washers shattered against the dusty floorboards of Jonathan's workshop.

"It's beginning," Chloe exchanged a look with Clark whose breath caught when the realisation dawned upon him what was happening.

"WHAT?" Lois exploded. "Just because you are from Krypton you don't have to act so goddamn cryptic!"

"Its Zod," Clark explained already moving past both women and heading towards the steps. "He's fixed the hard drive from the alien ship."

"This is what happened on Dark Thursday Lois," Chloe retorted before following Clark. "It started with that sound and then the earthquakes hit."

"Oh my God," Lois uttered a soft exclamation. "You mean right now? He's redecorating right _now_?"

"If you call shifting the Earth's crust so that the planet looks like Krypton, redecorating," Clark said in a deadpan. "I've got to stop this then I'll figure out how to get Zod back in the zone."

Lois could tell by the timbre of his voice that he was running on nothing but urgency, not thinking through what was ahead of him. That was Clark's way; she had come to learn since they had started dating. People mattered so much to him he didn't think of the consequences and sometimes he had to for the very same reason.

"Clark wait!" She called out following them both down the steps. The tremors had now become full on shaking and even as they descended, Lois was having trouble maintaining her balance. "You can't just go over there and fight him without your father's crystal."

"Lois, I can't afford to waste the time." He said grabbing both women like some kind of circus strongman and zipping out of the barn into the open fields where there would be little danger of them being harmed by anything.

Letting them go in the middle of the recently harvested field, Clark could feel the intensity of the tremors growing. Even from this distance, he could see its effect on the Kent household not to mention the bar. The nightmare of Dark Thursday and the destruction it wrought because one again, he had not followed his father's instruction was taking place before his eyes again. He just couldn't let it happen a next time.

"Smallville think!" Lois said placing her hands on his shoulder as if that would do anything to stop him if he chose to go. "You have once chance of stopping him, one chance and if you screw it up, we all lose."

Chloe wasn't sure what Lois was thinking she was accomplishing by this 'pep talk' but she knew Clark had barely managed to defeat Zod the last time and this time, without the crystal, Zod could very well kill him. "Clark, just listen to Lois a minute. Let's think about this before you rush off and do something to make things _worse_. "

"Lois, Chloe," Clark said impatiently, "every second I waste is another second where people are going to get hurt."

"Clark!" Lois spoke in a tone that Chloe had rarely heard her use. "People are going to get hurt a lot worse if General Krypton gets his way. This guy is a soldier, meaning he knew how to kick serious ass _before_ he got superpowers. You've had them all your life and I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you Smallville, but you're not a soldier and you don't know how to fight like one. Without the crystal, he'll have the advantage and as you're the only chance this planet has of getting through this thing, I'm asking you to _think_."

Clark wanted to protest and refute her words. It had stung a bit when she declared that having superpowers all his life had given him an unfair advantage but it was a fact he could not deny. Raya herself had said it when he first spoke of facing Zod, the man was a General and for all intensive purposes, Clark Kent was a farm boy. During their last encounter, Clark had only been able to get as close to Zod as he had because he had kneeled before the general in defeat.

As ego bruising as it was, Lois was right, he couldn't take the chance of moving too quickly and _losing_.

"Alright," he said meeting both of their gazes. "I'm thinking. What do we do?"

When the tremors had started, Zod was somewhat surprised that Kal-El hadn't appeared to make some pathetic attempt to stop him. After all, the young man had laughably warned him to leave Metropolis and Smallville untouched. Technically Zod had kept his word, he had made no move against those two cities but he had promised nothing about the planet. Despite the Construct's confidence that Kal-El would continue to be an ally whilst he remained under the thrall of red kryptonite, Zod did not share it.

Allegiance balanced on such a knife's edge was no absolute and the more Zod considered the idea as the Earth tore itself apart around him, the less he liked the idea that some day Kal-El might turn on him. And there was that other possibility as well, that the boy might have ambitions of his own. Certainly the moral inhibitors in his personality had been vanquished in the river of red kryptonite running through his blood. Did Zod want an ally that could challenge him?

Unable to decide at the moment because Zod was not one to waste resources, he would belay the question for now. Besides, the notion of having Jor-El's child as his right hand in the new order was too delicious to discard so easily and Zod was not immune to trapping of vengeance on his old nemesis.

When Kal-El arrived at the Luthor Mansion, the source of the earthquakes currently tearing his adopted home world apart, Zod was careful to ensure he had scanned every inch of the young man's person before reaching his presence. Zod had made that mistake once and paid for it dearly, he was not about to repeat it now that he was so close to getting everything that he wanted.

Around him, the Luthor home shook and shuddered but largely remained intact. The memories of Oliver Queen he had ingested when taking this body revealed that Luthor most likely had the mansion's structure reinforced to survive such a disaster. However, Zod suspected that no amount of precaution was going to prevent the structure from crumbling once the transformation of the Earth was complete. Watching the device on Luthor's laptop continue its endless spin, Zod waited for Kal-El to arrive.

Clark came to a stop in front of Lex's desk and stared across it into Zod's face. Around him, he ignored the effect of the tremors on the mansion and more importantly, what he had done the last time he was here. What he had said to Lana and how he had almost killed Lex. However, those memories were nothing in comparison to the soul sucking despair he felt when he saw Zod's wearing Oliver Queen's body. It took every ounce of control the young Kryptonian had not to show the shock and horror at what he had done to his friend. Clark held his impassive mask in place even though his soul screamed nothing but anguish

_I did this to him. I watched Fine hold him down while I did this to him. _

"I thought we agreed that Metropolis and Smallville was mine," Clark spoke with Kal's confidence, attempting to project as much of that arrogance as he could. Dressed in Kal's expensive clothes, remembering Lois' advice which was 'to just act like a jerk', Clark Kent stood before Zod trying to buy time. He kept his eyes fixed on Zod, ignoring the hard drive that was spinning within his line of sight. The less attention he paid to it; the better.

Zod displayed Oliver's charming smile as he eased back into the chair, dusting off a stray bit of debris from his shoulder. "They are still yours Kal-El," Zod said smoothly, "however; they will be a part of New Krypton."

"New Krypton," Clark nodded, seemingly impressed. "I suppose I could get used to the sound of that," he pulled up a chair and lowered himself into it, keeping his gaze fixed on Zod.

"It is the path your father should have chosen for you," Zod continued to speak. "Instead of sending you here as little more than a farmer's livestock, he should have sent you here to fulfil Krypton's legacy. This primitive world would have welcomed what we could have given them."

"I guess," Clark retorted, feigning boredom at his conversation. "Never been there, never gonna now." He shrugged.

Zod's eyes narrowed. "It is the planet of our birth. Krypton was a shining jewel of civilisation in an otherwise savage galaxy."

"Couldn't be that good," Clark replied. "Everyone keeps saying you destroyed it."

"Everyone?" Zod raised a brow in interest.

"Fine, Raya…."

"_Raya_ ," Zod uttered a low chuckle. "Jor-El's little whore."

Clark's jaw almost clenched in response but he managed to hold it back and surprised himself by responding with a smirk, "She _was_ very beautiful."

"She was nothing," Zod said dismissively, "now _your_ mother. Your mother _was_ a beautiful woman."

Despite himself, Clark couldn't help but show some interest. "Really? You knew my mother?"

"I doubt that there was anyone on Krypton who did not Lara Lor Van. Your father was the scientist. Your mother was the soldier. I knew her well." Zod's eyes seemed to drift and for a moment, Clark saw something in the man's eyes that made him uncomfortable, that appeared too much like how Clark looked in the mirror whenever he thought of Lana and and Lex together. "She was a formidable woman," Zod concluded, "and much too good to be have wasted her life on playing a home maker. She could have greatness but instead, she chose to die with your father."

Zod almost spat out the words and Clark decided then, he didn't want to know because the parallels to his own life could be more than he could stomach.

Around them, the quakes were becoming more and more violent and Clark dared a look over the building, wondering if the supports were going to hold out. "We should get out of here before this place comes down."

"Frightened Kal-El?" Zod taunted.

"Kal," Clark said sharply, remembering his aversion to his Kryptonian name when he was under the influence. "I'm not afraid. This is a new jacket." He smirked.

"Tell me about Miss Sullivan," the general inquired.

Clark blinked. "What?" A bit of his personality showed because the question took him by completely by surprise. "Why do you care about her?" Clark asked, insides knotting. Zod had never had any dealings with Chloe.

"Oliver remembers her," Zod replied, watching Kal-El's reaction with great interest. With serpentine eyes, the general watched and continued to prod, dissecting the young man with his questions. "Those memories indicate a sharp mind, adaptable with just enough complacency to be useful to me."

Hearing Chloe discussed like that was almost as disturbing as believing that Zod's feud with Jor-El could have been the result of his feelings Lara. "Useful."

"I need an heir Kal-El. I want a new bloodline, descended from Zod to crown my new empire. You have chosen your consort to rule Metropolis and Smallville; I want Miss Sullivan to rule New Krypton."

_No. No. No. _

Even as the tsunami of rage rose up inside of him, Clark's reasons was making a desperate attempts to rein in the fury that was flaring out of control, shattering the façade he had been trying so hard to main. However, the idea that Zod had designs on Chloe, the _one_ person who had stood by him for no other reason than friendship, sickened him to the core and cause something to snap inside Clark Kent with such finality that he barely noticed it had broken until it was too late.

"Not Chloe! NOT EVER." Clark's eyes burned with crimson that for once had nothing to do with red kryptonite.

Clark slammed into Zod with the force of a locomotive. The two men smashed through the wall and kept going, one after the other. Suddenly the roar of the earth quaking under them seemed far and hollow because all Clark could hear was the roar of fury in his ears. Consumed by the idea of Zod turning his twisted desires towards Chloe, Clark felt a rage he had not experienced since Alicia was murdered.

Only this was much, much worse.

Clark did not see the walls exploding around him but felt the support beams holding Lex's mansion give way, each time he and Zod barrelled straight through them. They finally reached the grounds of Lex's manicured lawns, existing through the outside wall of the mansion before skidding through the meticulously tended Kentucky bluegrass. Soil and grass piled up around them as they tore deep groove in the lawn before finally coming to a stop.

"You'll never get your hands on her!" Clark shouted, throwing a punch before Zod had time to recover, driving the older Kryptonian deep in the dirt. Lois had said he didn't know how to fight like a soldier, well maybe he didn't but that wasn't going to stop him from beating Zod to a pulp or die trying. "NEVER!" He screamed enraged.

"All too easy," Zod smirked, blocking the blow as if expecting the outburst and blasted Clark off him with a burst of heat vision.

Clark sailed across the air in a neat arc, landing on a concrete bench and collapsing it beneath the force of his impact. Zod immediately got to his feet and looked at Clark, smiling.

"All too easy, Kal-El," Zod gloated triumphantly. "You're still a boy and so predictable. I knew it was just a matter of time before you would show your true nature although I am disappointed by how easy it was to provoke you to act. You are ruled by your emotions. Lara would be disappointed."

Clark ignore the obvious taunt, knowing now that he had thrown down the gauntlet, he had no choice but to follow this fight wherever it might lead. Whatever, it might cost him. God help him, he may have to sacrifice Oliver to stop this.

Getting to his feet, Clark faced Zod, readying himself for a fight.

To the death if necessary.

Across the frozen wasteland, Lois Lane was running as fast as she could towards the fortress, knowing that she had no time to waste. In the distance, the crystal structure waited patiently for her to arrive while beneath her feet, the ground shuddered and quaked treacherously. Clark had wanted her to leave, go far away where Zod would not find her, at least for awhile anyway. If he failed in stopping the Kryptonian warlord, far away would not be enough. However, Lois convinced him that she could help and he needed all that the assistance he could get.

Dressed for it this time, Lois made good pace across the icy tundra, seeing her breath form clouds of vapour as she moved. Heart pounding at the exertion, she crossed the space between the fortress and the spot where the cleft in the Kawatchee cave wall had deposited her after Clark had sent her through. Chloe had wanted to come with her as well but both Clark and Lois had decided that if this desperate plan of theirs failed, someone on Earth had to know how to stop Zod. There were other heroes out there, Clark had said, other heroes who might be able to do what he might not.

The idea of failure and the death that might result was something Lois kept firmly out of her thoughts because compared to the destruction of Earth, it seemed rather a small price to pay.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE HOUR OF THE WOLF

It was quiet.

Even though the earth was heaving in protest beneath them, even though each could hear sounds of calamity from distance places, in that moment as they looked upon each other, there was nothing but silence.

It was the silence that came when two armies faced each other across the field, the pause that held each side in place, anticipating the battle to come. It was like the first drop of blood, hanging pendulously in a single drop, waiting to fall and splatter. It is like the moment waiting for wakefulness to become sleep, that small window of time when there was nothing but the silence and men have sold theirs souls just to make it stop.

Some call it the hour of the wolf.

The last time they had faced each other, Clark Kent who had existed his entire life in a safe cloak of invulnerability learned just how fragile he was to someone from his own world. Even though it had been part of an agenda, Clark had remembered how humiliating it was to hear those three words.

_Kneel before Zod._

Even now, the memory felt like ash in his mouth and as he stood his ground, waiting for something to happen while around him the Earth was continuing its painful rebirth as Krypton, Clark knew he would never do it again while there was breath in his body.

"I warned you Kal-El," Zod broke the silence. "I warned you what I would do if you interfered with me again. This time, I will make you pay by killing everything on this Earth that means anything to you. When you betrayed me, you signed their death warrant. Remember that Kal-El when you bury them."

_Don't._

_  
Don't let him bait you. _

_This is what he wants. He wants you to come to him. Don't give him the advantage. _

Clark repeated these words to himself like a chant. He had already tipped his hand by reacting to Zod's intentions towards Chloe. Clark knew he could only make that mistake once. Lois had told him to keep a cool head. She had imparted to him every iota of useful information she could think of, words that had been branded into her memory by a father who saw her more as one of his troops than his daughter. For once Clark had been grateful to heed the advice.

"That the best you can do?" Clark goaded. "You sound like the villain in a bad movie. What next, you're going to get me and my little dog?"

Zod's expression became menacing and without response, shot forward towards Clark, determined to slam into him with the force of a 747. Clark held his ground, watching leaves and dirt corkscrew into the air with the sudden rush of wind. Watching closely, he saw Zod about to hit him in mid sternum when suddenly at the last minute, when Zod's fists were inches away from him, Clark turned sharply, letting the man speed past. However, instead of letting him fly by completely, the last son of Krypton pulled back his fist and dropped it into the small of Zod's back.

The power behind his fist stopped Zod in mid flight and drove him straight into the ground. As the General reeled, Clark used his super speed and moved in. Grabbing Zod's head with both hands, Clark bashed his skull into the ground so many times that each impact against the dirt was little more than a blur. However, Zod was not about to take this abuse without retaliation. As Clark pummeled him overhead, the Kryptonian wrenched himself free by propelling himself upward.

Suddenly Clark felt himself aloft as Zod gained altitude. Not about to be taken on any unwilling flights, Clark let go and tumbled into the ground, creating a small dust cloud when he landed. Zod flew high enough to get free and then he was heading back towards Clark. This time however, the General greeted him with a burst of heat vision that more or less seared the expensive coat Clark was wearing to impersonate Kal, off his shoulders.

Flung back by the intense heat, Clark impacted against a tree, snapping its trunk in half as he tore through it. Zod continued his assault with heat vision, igniting the leaves as the deadly rays advanced towards Clark. Wasting no time, Clark picked up the blackened tree trunk and swung. He had never been allowed to play baseball but Clark did know how to hit. The trunk connected with Zod and sent him zooming through the sky and crashing into garage where Lex kept his fleet of expensive cars.

_I hope he lands on the Ferrari_, Clark thought to himself.

When Zod did not come out straight away, Clark zoomed across the debris strewn grounds, slowing just before he reached it. Suddenly, a wall exploded outwards as the said Ferrari flew out of the building towards it, followed by the Porsche, the Masseratti and every automobile contained in the garage. Clark dodged the cars flying towards him, swatting some aside and using his super breathe to deflect others from landing on top of him.

In the midst of avoiding the barrage of prestige cars, Clark lost sight of Zod.

Using his enhanced vision as he dodged the vehicles, he scanned the area for some sign of the General. He did not have to search for because Clark looked up just in time to see Zod plunging down on him. Like he had been struck with a pile driver, Clark was driven into the ground, his feet splitting the earth like one of the posts he managed to dig into the dirt on the farm with his bare hand. Clark sank all the way down to his armpits and was preparing to break free at super speed, when Zod zoomed in for the kill.

Throwing powerful right and left cross against Clark's jaw as the younger man tried to free himself; each blow was hard enough to make a Kryptonian's teeth rattle. As he suffered the blows, Clark's rapidly disorientated mind clung to the words Lois had tried to make him remember. Don't let him get close. Blood filled his mouth as he struggled out to claw his way out of the dirt but Zod's blows did not stop.

"I did not want this Kal-El," the enemy growled as he continued to beat Clark senseless. "I would have been perfectly content to let you be my ally but I knew that you are too much your father's son. Sooner or later, you would betray me. It's in your blood."

Lashing out more out of desperation than fury, Clark turned the full force of his heat vision at anything directly before. A gust of heat, like a wind tunnel on fire not only flung Zod away from him but burned every living thing in the area. Vegetation turned into ashes, soil became fused like glass. The superheated air was shimmering before him as Clark hauled him out of the ground. Aching and bleeding, he saw Zod crashing into the tar driveway in front of the mansion, his landing breaking the slab apart.

Inhaling deeply and blowing out sharply, Clark sent another gust of wind at the General, hoisting him into the air as if a twister had ripped leaf from a branch. Speeding ahead, little more than a red and blue blur of colour, Clark went after Zod and jumped. While he could not fly, he was more than capable of reaching Zod in the air and throwing a punch at his enemy. There to meet Zod when both of them were on the ground, Clark continued to keep him off balance, alternating between, punches, blasts of heat vision and super breath, determined not to give Zod a chance to breathe.

"Are you afraid to face me?" Zod hurled at him when the General shattered another wall on Lex's mansion. "You find like a frightened child!"

Clark refused to let himself be goaded, knowing that could be a fatal mistake. He could feel wet running out of his ears, taste the metallic tang of blood still. He would heal eventually but even Clark Kent had his limits. Zod on the other hand, seemed to become more enraged at the fact that he was being thwarted by Jor-El's inexperienced son.

"Whatever works," Clark retorted and snatched one of those pretensions statues framing Lex's front garden and throwing it at Zod.

Zod vaporized it in mid air, heat vision splitting apart the marble lion figure into tiny fragments. Beneath them, deep fissures began to appear in the cement driveway, running across the concrete like ugly veins while the Luthor mansion continued to disintegrate under the intense seismic activity. A section of the opulent structure started to give way, no longer able to withstand the earthquake or the abuse inflicted upon it by the two warring combatants.

Clark paused a moment, distracted. Unfortunately it was all the time that Zod needed before the General was before him. Taking a cautionary step back, Clark tried to recover his mistake but Zod had anticipated the movement.

"An interesting strategy," Zod retorted as he locked his hand around Clark's arm. "Hit and run tactics. Very wise when dealing with a far superior opponent," Zod sneered as he punched Clark so hard that the young man was driven to his knees. His blow followed another and Clark attempted to block him and wrench free. Instead, the General brought his skull down against Clark's nose.

Bone crunched as the younger Kryptonian staggered back, bleeding profusely.

"Its strategy I might employ myself," Zod retorted as he took advantage of Clark's disorientated state and continue to pound him relentlessly, ensuring every punch was delivered for maximum damage. "I am a general Kal-El. I have done things you cannot even begin to conceive. I commanded Krypton's armies! I could have brought her to greatness if it wasn't for weaklings like your father! Scientists and pacifists who could never understand that non-violence is the breeding ground for subjugation! Did you think a simple farm boy like you could even begin to outthink me?" Zod demanded furiously. "Look at your world Kal-El! While you're wasting all your time with this pathetic excuse of a fight, your precious Earth is destroying itself!"

Clark jaw was almost broken and he was trying to see through a swollen blood filled eye. "It was never about outthinking you Zod," Clark smiled through the bruises and the blood on his face. "It was always about keeping you _busy_."

Chloe was waiting when Lois had finally emerged from the Kawatchee caves.

As it was, she counted herself fortunate that she was able to make it outside at all. The seismic chaos caused by Zod's device had caused such violent tremors that Lois was fearful she might be buried alive after Jor-El returned her to the cleft in the chamber. Lois suspected that what was at the fortress was not Clark's dad at all but some kind of information system with the memory anagrams of Joe, utilizing a kind of AI intelligence far beyond human comprehension. Perhaps that was why Fortress Joe was always so cryptic, because he could only say what Real Joe had programmed him within the parameters of its design.

It did not make any real difference because Fortress Joe was more than forthcoming when Lois appeared at Krypton's last bastion in the universe and brought him up to speed on the plan she and Clark had devised. Okay, she devised it but Clark was the one doing the hard work. Thinking about him, Lois forced the worry from her mind. In the last two days, she had been let in on the secret of the century and was she, Lois Lane, intrepid reporter of the Inquisitor thinking that this could be the most momentous occasion in human history?

No, she was thinking about her boyfriend who might be getting the snot pounded out of him.

Fortress Joe showed her what she needed and then sent her straight back to the Kawatchee Caves which was shaking so badly that Lois had real fear as she raced through the darkened chambers that the roof would come down above her head. When she saw daylight against, Lois did not imagine that there could be anything so sweet. However, she had no time to savor the sensation. No sooner than she appeared, Chloe's voice snapped her back to the mission at hand.

"Lois!" Chloe hurried to her. "Thank God," her cousin sighed with visible relief. "I was sure that whole cave was going to collapse. We have to get going. Clark's at the Luthor mansion. That's where the tremors are originating. Looks like Zod likes to keep to familiar ground."

After Lois had gone through, Clark and Chloe had tried to trace the origins of the damaging signal. Unfortunately, with the alien hard drive commandeering all lanes on the information superhighway, that task was easier said than done. Venturing a guess that Zod would use the mansion as his base of operations since his second resurrection, Clark chanced a quick trip to confirm his theory. He had paused long enough to tell Chloe before rushing off to face Zod again. All she could do was wait until Lois returned from the fortress while he went off to distract Zod.

"Okay," Lois nodded as she returned Chloe's embrace and started moving towards the car. "You know what to do, make your stops at the mansion and then keep going."

"What?" Chloe stared at her. "Lois I'm not leaving you there!"

"Chloe don't fight me on this one okay?" Lois looked at her sharply. "I might get myself killed doing this. I don't want the same to happen to you. Besides, you heard what Clark said, if we fail then someone else has to be able to warn others, tell them what's happening. Chloe," Lois said trying not to sound as melodramatic as she uttered the warning, "you're our last line of defense."

Zod had been so enraged by a farm boy challenging him that he hadn't heard what Clark had, the rumble of a car's engine just beyond the mansion's line of sight. He had heard the engine stop but briefly and then resume its course. Knowing that it was going to cost him, Clark made a pretty good show of defending himself, even when he let blows through he could have blocked. Zod needed to be distracted and Clark was all too aware of what was at stake. Lois' plan was a gamble, a one shot that Clark was willing to suffer because she was right. He had defeated Zod the last time because Clark had been able to take him by surprise.

To only way to do it now, was to surprise him again.

"_It was always about keeping you busy." _

Zod's fist halted in mid air as he hovered over Clark, understanding filling his mind. Turning his head towards the mansion, he saw Lois Lane through the walls, breaking into the ruined structure, moving down the halls of what was left of Luthor's parlor where the alien hard drive continued to wreak havoc. The girl was moving fast with skill he noted. The farm boy may not be a soldier but the girl…the girl could have been. Searching Oliver's memories, Zod remembered that Lois was the daughter of Sam Lane, a three star general.

Appropriate, he thought venomously. A general had given her life. A general would take it away again.

"How long did you think you are going to be able to keep her from me?" Zod sneered at Clark.

"Long enough," Clark blasted heat vision into two focused beams of crimson into Zod's eyes.

Zod screamed. It was possibly the first time he had actually screamed. The pain seared through the back of his skull and only his invulnerability saved him and his vision. Staggering backward, his eye lids blistering, his visual receptors struggled to compensate for the overload. Clark wasted no time and closed the distance between them. This time, it was Zod's turn to suffer. Pouncing on the general, Clark flattened him against the concrete floor and drove him into the ground, using his fist like jackhammers.

Taking advantage of his rather underhanded attack on Zod, Clark hit him so hard repeatedly that the concrete beneath Zod cracked. What windows that hadn't been broken by the earthquakes were shattering one by one by the force of his blows. Like explosions, each time he hit, another crack appeared on the glass. Clark did not recall ever needing to use his strength like this. It felt good to unleash it all; it felt good to not have to hide who he was.

Hell, it even felt good to beat the living shit of out of Zod.

"This is MY HOME!" Clark growled. "You will never hurt anyone here again! Even if I had to send you and Oliver to the Zone! Do you hear me? NEVER!"

Beneath him, Zod's flesh began to bruise, began to soften like his had. He could feel blood on his knuckles, the ache in his arms as he continued to beat on the General, unleashing all the repressed fury he had been keeping inside of him, the rage he felt because of what he had done as Kal, caused by this animal's servant, Fine. Fueled by had and frustration at what had transpired the last two days, the indignities and the violence he was committed, Clark Kent allowed himself to feel fury at the injustices of his life of late.

"I can't believe you thought I was ever going to join you. Earth is my world! All that's left of Krypton are memories I don't have. I laugh thinking you actually believed I was going to help you all kill all those people!"

"NOBODY LAUGHS AT ME! NOBODY!"

Zod's scream of fury was like an animal's roar. Fingers dug into his forearm as Clark was suddenly surging into the air, leaving the ground far behind him. Zod was flying, taking them into the sky. The General's blistered face was healing rapidly as they flew up into the clouds. Clark felt the wind billowing under him, felt the cold rushing against his cheek as they disappeared into the thick cumulus. Trying not to feel fear, Clark hung on as the Luthor mansion became tiny beneath him.

"If you can believe anything Kal-El," Zod growled at him hoarsely, "believe whether you can FLY!"

With that, he released Clark and watched the young man fall.

_Jesus Christ on a crutch_, Lois thought as she shifted through the damaged ruins of Lex's mansion, is Lex going to be seriously PO'ed when he comes back. Lois had only been to the mansion a number of times before Clark's falling out with Lex. However, she remembered thinking how gauche it was that anyone would move a Scottish castle from its ancestral lands to Kansas just so they could use it stroke themselves over the prestige of their lineage.

Still, Lois still had to admit feeling horrified at seeing the mansion in this state.

It wasn't easy moving through the building especially with the ground shuddering before her and Lois needing to avoid the barrage of falling debris. She shouldn't be in here but if Clark was risking his life fighting Zod, than she was going to risk her own fulfilling her part of the plan. A support beam fell behind her with a loud crack, covering Lois in dust as she reached the doorway to the parlor. It was the most logical place to start and the one room that hadn't been completely demolished yet. Knowing Luthor, he probably built himself one structurally indestructible room to protect his sorry ass.

Out of breath slightly when she arrived in the parlor, Lois felt another lurch in her stomach as she saw the destruction inside. An almighty crack had split the floor, leaving a gapping breach half a foot wide across the polished wooden floor. Broken edges jutted upwards like a small row of spears pointing at the air. Almost everything that wasn't bolted down was on the floor. Shelves, tables and ornaments covered the ruined Persian rug. However, Lex's desk remained intact as Lois' eyes was drawn to the spinning amber light that circled the room like the strobe inside a nightclub. It was drawing energy from the laptop, using it as a conduit to continue its rampage against Earth.

It was the epicenter of all the chaos.

Lois ran across the floor, maintaining her footing as the ground shuddered and quaked, making her fight for every inch of space between her and Lex's desk. She saw the hard drive continuing its turn to transform Earth into Krypton. She couldn't help but stare at it for a while, marveling the technology. How far ahead was Krypton in comparison to Earth? Was it any reason that Zod and Fortress Joe had such an appreciative view of humans? Compared to Krypton, Earth must be something out of the Stone Age.

Her first impulse was to reach for it but Clark had warned her against it.

"Okay, no smashing you into a thousand little pieces," she told the thing. "Well do the next best thing then." Producing the gun Lionel had provided, the one still containing Kryptonite shells laced with lead, Lois took aimed and fired.

Not at the hard drive but at the laptop.

The first bullet made her jump slightly as the laptop exploded beneath her as the casing was blown apart by the impact. There was really no need for the others but Lois wanted to make sure. She almost emptied the entire magazine into the thing, turning it in to little more than a collection of plastic and metal fragments. The hard drive stopped spinning almost immediately. Cut off, the Earth suddenly went still as the tremors abruptly stopped. Like a spinning top suddenly out of steam, the hexagonal disk began to slow.

Suddenly, Lois felt the familiar gust of wind sweep into the room and pause behind her. She prayed it was Clark but somehow, she had really doubted it. Swinging around, her fingers still poised on the trigger of her weapon, she was ready to fire at the first sight of Zod.

"What have you done?" The General demanded glaring at the laptop she had completely destroyed.

It was unnerving to see Oliver's face staring at her and for a fraction of a second; Lois almost forgot that it was not a Kryptonian megalomaniac standing before her but Ollie, the only man other than Clark she could have loved. She wondered if he was still in there and remembered what Clark had said about Lex the last time Zod occupied a human host.

With that in mind, she did not hesitate to pull the trigger and fire the rest of the Kryptonian bullets into him.

He barely noticed them and seemed almost amused when nothing happened. "You humans are priceless," Zod closed the distance between him and Kal-El's female in a blink of an eye. Hand around her throat; he hoisted her off the floor with one hand while crushing her gun in the other. "I'm not going to bother explaining the whole business of Kryptonite only affecting those were who are actually born on Krypton as opposed to the ones who arrive in the manner which I did."

Lois struggled to break free but she knew it was useless. As it was, his grip around her throat was vise like and she could barely breathe, let alone respond.

"I warned Kal-El what I would do if he betrayed me again," Zod stared at her mercilessly. "What happens to you now is with his compliments."


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: UP, UP AND AWAY

He was falling.

Beneath him, the ground was starting to loom large and though Clark Kent knew that he would most likely survive the impact, he couldn't be sure that he would come out of it in any shape to fight Zod. Being injured did not frighten him. However, being too injured to help Lois terrified him beyond belief. Zod had gloated as he zoomed past Clark, heading towards the house, heading towards Lois with the satisfaction of knowing that Clark as in no position to pursue him.

As the wind rushed through his hair, billowing through his clothes, Clark felt furious that he was caught like this. He was a Kryptonian and he should know how to fly! He should! Not for the first time, Clark swore at himself for not taking the time he should have had to train with Jor-El, to learn about his heritage or at the very least, learn the extent of what he could do. Seeing the Luthor mansion beneath him, Clark used his enhanced vision to seek out Zod and Lois.

_God! Zod was closing in on her. _

"LOIS!" Clark let out a scream of anguish at his inability to warn her.

He couldn't lose her! Not now and it wouldn't be like losing Alicia. It would be a thousand times worse than that. He and Alicia's relationship had been driven by like minded insecurities because of their abilities. He was able to be himself in front of her because of her own secrets but with Lois, there was never any of that pressure. She had accepted him for what he was, for no other reason than he was Clark Kent, exasperating farm boy. Even after what he had done to her as Kal, Lois still loved him.

And Clark loved her.

Completely, without hesitation, with the utter certainty that she was the one that Martha had promised was out there for him. Even with Lana there was never this doubt that it would not work out with them. After he had finally admitted how he felt about Lois, Clark couldn't begin to imagine looking back at Lana and now he couldn't imagine how he would ever live without Lois.

The ground was getting closer; he could see trees appearing against the verdant green below him. Closing his eyes, Clark forced himself to focus. He could fly. He knew it. He had done it. As Kal-El, he had been able to fly, Martha had seen him do it and that time when he had found himself on the highway, he had flown. All Kryptonians could and better or for worse, he was Kryptonian and he had to learn!

Now.

Clark didn't have much time, less than a minute or so he estimated before he plunged to the ground for what was certain to be a painful landing. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm himself down and dredge up memories that he had tried so hard to bury. He had told the truth to his parents that he didn't remember anything about being Kal-El during the three months that he was missing. However, something had happened to him when he first discovered the fortress. Jor-El had attempted to train him then and during the aborted process, he had been assailed with a myriad of images, a kaleidoscope he still couldn't make complete sense of.

However, what it did shake loose were clearer memories of that period of time following his emergence in the cornfield where Lois had found him.

It was easy. He knew that much. Zod had taken to it without any trouble at all. The girl Kara had done the same. It was just a matter of will and right now, as Clark saw the fissured driveway of the Luthor mansion rushing up to greet him, Clark had he had found plenty of will. Focusing all his energy into believing he could fly, into knowing that he was capable, Clark's aching jaw clenched, his teeth ground against each other.

The wind was rushing at him, blowing through his hair, shielding him from nothing. He could feel it against his skin, the currents rushing defiantly past him, refusing to stop, refusing to give him what he needed. Clark opened his eyes and saw the concrete below coming to claim him and instinctively, folded his arm's, protecting his face from the impact when suddenly, the rushing air past him stilled.

Blinking twice, Clark lowered his hands and realized that he wasn't falling. He was barely a meter off the ground but he was still _off_ the ground.

Hovering.

Chloe should have done this. She really shouldn't have.

Lois had told her to carry out her part of the plan and leave but when she saw Clark and Zod gaining altitude and then the General leaving Clark to fall, Chloe was spinning the wheel of her car and speeding towards the mansion. There was only one place he would head to if abandoned his fight with Clark and that had to be back towards the device. The same device Lois had sneaked into the mansion to disable. Although Chloe felt some concern for Clark, she knew he was pretty indestructible, he'd survive the fall.

Lois, however, wouldn't survive an encounter with Zod.

_And neither would you_, her inner voice reminded as Chloe made her way through the ruined mansion, trying to decide what it was she attempting to accomplish here. She couldn't answer that question but did notice that the building was not longer shaking and shuddering around her nor was the ground tearing itself apart with violent earthquakes. Lois must have stopped the alien hard drive somehow.

_Zod couldn't be too happy about that._

Just how unhappy he was became known to Chloe when she stepped into what was left of Lex's parlour and saw Zod's hand clenched around Lois' neck while dangling her off the ground like a marionette puppet. Chloe's stomach lurched as Lois continued to kick violently, trying to break free of a grip she had no hope of escaping before realizing with horror that her cousin was losing consciousness. Driven out of fear, Chloe picked up an iron poker that had spilled out of is stand in the tremors and crept up behind Zod before smashing the cast iron rod against the arm choking the life out of Lois.

"Let her go!" She demanded.

In retrospect it had about as useful as trying to defend oneself with a baked bean against charging rhinoceros.

The rod vibrated hard in her hand as she had attempted to wrap it around a steel girder. Shuddering, it forced Chloe to drop it against the floor, making a loud clattering noise as it landed. Wide-eyed with fear, Chloe retreated, remembering that one blast of heat vision could end her life and everything she ever dreamed of being. Worst of all, she'd die being unable to be of any help to Lois at all.

"That is quite a request," Zod half turned and fixed his high-powered gaze at Chloe, a small smile crossing his lips. "How nice to see you, Chloe."

That she knew her name surprised her.

Chloe quickly reminded herself that this was Oliver Queen's body and no doubt, Oliver's memories were at Zod's disposal. "Let her go, please," Chloe demanded, uncertain why she was making the request. Perhaps it was because he was speaking to her almost politely that made her try. She had nothing to lose.

"As you wish," his green eyes lingered on her and for some reason, Chloe felt her skin crawl. Unclenching his fist, he let Lois collapsed to the ground. She didn't move after piling on the debris covered floor in a heap.

"Lois!" Chloe hurried to her side to see if she was alive. Zod's powerful handprint against Lois' throat created an ugly discolored bruise and Lois' breathing was labored. Chloe wasn't even sure if she was breathing.

"I have been waiting to meet you Chloe," Zod's hand grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from Lois.

"Me?" Chloe didn't understand as she stumbled to her feet. "What do you want with me?"

Zod produced an almost serpentine smile. "I want to give you the chance to save your cousin. Give me what I want and I will let her live instead of the painful death she so richly deserves for plotting against me with Kal-El."

"What about Clark…?" Chloe stuttered, stalling for time.

"There is nothing you can do for Kal-El," Zod's expression hardened. "His fate is sealed whatever your decision. Hers is not however."

Chloe was genuinely puzzled. Her contact with Oliver Queen was infrequent at best. Of course they ran into each other Clark's barn every now and then but other than that, she barely knew him. What possible impression could she have left in his mind that engendered Zod's interest?

"What do you want?" She asked finally, feeling this nagging fear in her pit of her stomach that was growing in intensity.

"An heir."

Chloe's eyes widened. "You're kidding?" Her exclamation was one part shock, disbelief and plain bewilderment. "Why me?"

In a small way Chloe was flattered, the way a baby seal was flattered just before some seal hunter staved in its skull for a Park Avenue fur coat. Keeping calm her obvious horror, she played the game for now because somewhere out there, Clark Kent was going to come to their rescue them and she had to keep Lois alive until then. Zod had no reason to keep her alive and every reason to kill her.

Zod's hand brushed against her cheek and Chloe fought the urge to flinch, even though she was terrified out of her mind. "I will establish the bloodline of Zod on this world. You will be my consort and the mother of my children. You have intelligence and spirit. Qualities my sons will need. In exchange, I will let you keep a select number of loved ones alive for your amusement."

It was almost surreal and years of hiding her feelings for Clark Kent was probably the only reason why Chloe managed to hide her horror at what he was suggesting. "Sounds like an offer I can't refuse." She swallowed thickly, glancing at Lois. It concerned her to no end that Lois still wasn't moving.

"A wise piece advice would be not to," Zod warned.

"Then I won't," Chloe was sweetly, trying not to shake. "Now let me help her, please..."

"I need one other thing from you first," Zod lowered his face to hers. His lips inches away from hers.

Chloe shuddered, "what?"

"Your laptop."

In actual truth, Lois Lane was very much awake.

She had been listening and not only had she been listening, her hand was clenched firmly around the crystal that she had retrieved from the fortress. When Chloe had come to check on her, she had slipped it into Lois' hand to keep it from Zod. While she listened in horror at what Zod was proposing to Chloe…_major gross factor here_…she wondered where Clark was. Chloe was supposed to meet Clark once Lois had shut down the device. The plan was to distract Zod long enough to shut the thing off and bring Zod here, giving Clark enough time to meet Chloe and get the crystal.

However, it had gone wrong because Clark had not come. So where was he?

Wherever he was, Lois couldn't let Zod get to that laptop.

Waiting until Zod's back was turned while he dragged Chloe out of the room, Lois got to her feet and tried to reach the General. Her throat was still burning with pain but she had to move. All their lives depended on it. Grabbing his arm, she slammed Jor-El's crystal against his bicep praying it would work. Zod turned around, eyes widened as he stared at her. It only took him a second to see what she was pressing against his flesh.

Eyes widening with fury, Zod snapped his arm against her with enough force to send Lois flying across the room. Lois uttered a sharp cry as something sharp tore through her shoulder and started to bleed onto her chest.

"LOIS!" Chloe screamed. "You son of a bitch!" She struggled to break free as she saw her cousin impaled with one of the jagged edges of the torn up floorboards.

Suddenly the wall behind them both shattered and Clark smashed into the room, splitting Lex's heavy oak table in two as he sped through it like a streak of red. Pausing near Zod long enough to get Chloe free and throwing a powerful uppercut against the General's chin and sent him through the ceiling away from Lois and Chloe.

Dropping to the floor, he saw Jor-El's crystal amongst the debris and retrieved it, preparing to go after Zod when Clark saw something that froze him to the spot.

"Lois…?" The word escaped in a strangled whisper.

He saw _blood_, rivers of red running down her shoulder, spreading across her shirt and the sharp point of wood that protruded from her flesh. He saw the bruise on her neck as Chloe ran to her, weeping in fear.

Oh God, Lois.

"Clark, we have to get her to a hospital!" Chloe cried, uncertain whether or not to move her. She was already reaching inside her jacket, trying to find her cell to call an ambulance if it was even possible to do so.

_So much blood. _

Clark was at her side in a second but this time, Lois did not stir. He could see the wooden shard through her skeleton, could see the broken bones that was not visible to the eye.

_Please let her be alive. Please don't take her away from me._

"Lois," Clark looked at Chloe with anguish. "Lois, say something." His voice pleaded with her. He needed her to say something, _anything._ Clark wanted to wake up and tell him to quit panicking, to smirk at him in that way she had, to call him Smallville. Clark needed to hear her voice or nothing he did ever did in this life would matter. Nothing.

"Clark she's out of it," Chloe raised her eyes to him and implored, seeing his panic. This hit too close to home after what happened with Alicia. "We need to get her to a hospital now!"

However Clark was no longer listening. Not since seeing Jonathan die had Clark Kent felt such deep, terrible despair. In his hand, Clark was still clenching Jor-El's crystal in his palm. He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes narrowing as he slid the object into the pocket of his jeans. Barely aware of anything but his fury, Clark Kent leapt into the air screaming his enemy's name.

"ZODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!"

Clark flew through the ceiling, raining mortar and debris down against the ground before soaring through several floors before exploding out the roof of the Luthor mansion. Roof tiles broke around him as he reached the open sky and found Zod waiting.

"Is she dead yet, Kal-El?" Zod sneered as he hovered not far above the mansion.

Clark did not respond.

He kept flying. He had learned how to fly out of desperation but now hatred was helping things along considerably. Like a projectile, Clark slammed into Zod and kept going. They left the mansion far behind them again but this time Clark was no longer the novice. True, he was not as adept as he would like but his rage gave him focus and his adrenaline made his senses sharper. In mid air, he threw another punch at Zod, sending the General spinning through the sky. Clark didn't let him come to a rest until he sped up to Zod again, delivering another powerful blow, one after the other.

The ferocity of the boy's attack took the General by surprise.

And something else had changed. The boy wasn't holding back. In all their previous bouts, Zod had detected the slight hint of resistance because the humans who raised him had crippled him with senseless moral values that had no place in a true son of Krypton. However as Zod fended off Clark's blows, taken back somewhat by the savage punches, he knew that moral code was the farthest thing in Kal-El's mind now. The boy hadn't been fighting to kill before.

He was _now_.

Clark couldn't see anything but Lois lying there, covered in blood. Zod had destroyed Krypton, had threatened to destroy everything and everyone that he cared about. This couldn't continue. Zod would keep coming back, over and over again until he got what he wanted, until Earth was destroyed. Clark couldn't protect Lois all the time against this animal, against this aberration wearing Oliver's face. Using his super speed, Clark pounded Zod with such fury that the General had little opportunity to shield himself.

Grabbing Zod while the man was disorientated, he flew across the landscape, marveling at how he could have denied himself this pleasure for so long. Driven by will he did not think he possessed, Clark flew to the waters of Crater Lake and plunged beneath its murky surface. It occurred to him then that this terrain would be completely alien to Zod if everything he knew about Krypton was correct. Diving straight to the bottom of the volcanic lake, Clark could feel the heat of magma churning beneath the lakebed.

He could see Zod trying to accustom himself to the terrain but Clark would give him no such time. Using his heat vision, the water began to boil, creating even more confusion for Zod to overcome. Steam, heat, bubbles created a confusing mixture that Clark was accustomed to after way to many games of Marco Polo with Pete and Chloe over the years. Once he had created enough chaos, Clark went in for the kill again, attacking Zod until his limbs ached. Until he started to see the water discolor with red and realized that Zod was bleeding.

_Good._

By the time Zod had been born, Krypton's surface had become so crystallized due to the rapidly changing environment that complete immersion in water was almost impossible. Water was too strictly rationed for it to be used for so frivolous a purpose. Of course at that time, the possibility, that Rao the native Kryptonian sun was going nova, never occurred to anyone and was responsible for much of this climatic changes. However, little of that mattered now because Zod was seeing his blood in the water because Kal-El, fueled by rage, fighting with the advantage that came with hatred, not to mention raw, youthful talent had been pushed too far.

_No!_

He refused to be beaten by a child! He would not be. Zod attempted to swim out of this alien environment but a hand wrapped around his ankle and proceeded to beat him against the lake bed. Swinging back and forth, slamming him into the hard bedrock, Zod began to see more red staining the water.

It was time to finish this. Clark swung Zod around and threw him towards the surface before following the General as he was flung out of the water. Flight and speed making it easy for him to catch up with Zod's landing site, Clark landed on the soft sand. Zod was barely able to fight back, still reeling at the thrashing he had received beneath the water and Clark saw him for the first time, bleeding, broken, and ready to be killed.

_Helpless._

It would be so easy to end him now. To finish him once and for all. If Clark was at all sensible, he would kill Zod and be done with the General and any lingering threat to Lois and his family. This animal had hurt Lois, had tried to kill her! He couldn't bear to lose her, not after losing Jonathan. It was too much. He couldn't go through the pain of losing Lois, like he had Jonathan.

_Jonathan._

The memory of the man who shaped his life returned to Clark at that moment, as if even in death, Jonathan Kent had one last lesson to teach. The man who gave him everything of value in his life, who taught him the lessons that would follow Clark to the grave had only ever asked one thing of his son. To be a good man.

And good men _didn't_ kill.

Closing his eyes, Clark blinked away tears and knew he could not do it. No, not could... _ would_ _not_ do it

The fury of Lois' injury was subsiding and he wanted to kill Zod badly but if he killed Zod then he would become the very thing that Jonathan Kent had tried so hard to prevent. He would become a killer. Opening his eyes as Zod's fight had left him, albeit temporarily, Clark decided that it was time. Reaching into his pocket, he produced the crystal.

"NOO!" Zod's eyes widened at the doom approaching and tried to jump up but Clark slammed a boot down against his chest and held him in place.

"I WILL KILL YOU KAL-EL! I SWEAR IT! EVEN IF YOU SEND ME BACK! I WILL FIND A WAY TO REUTRN AND I WILL DESTROY YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR! I WILL TEAR THIS WORLD APART BECAUSE OF YOU! BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"It's over Zod!" Clark barked and kicked him in the jaw before lowering down long enough to press the crystal displaying the family crest of El against the man's cheek. "Send my regards to other prisoners in the Zone."

"NOOOOO!!!!" Zod continued to scream, fighting the inevitable as the crystal began to glow.

Clark stood back and watched dispassionately as Zod began to writhe and scream, fighting against the power of the crystal that was tearing his essence away his briefly acquired host. Their eyes locked in the instant before the Zod's wraith like body ripped itself free and in his departure, Zod hissed.

"You have won nothing. This is far from over…!" Zod hissed before his words broke into mindless screams of agony as he was pulled out of Oliver Queen's body. However, his freedom from flesh was short lived because the glowing crystal was soon dragging Zod back into his prison. Clutching wildly at the air with fingers he no longer possessed, Zod's intangible form disappeared into the trap created by his greatest enemy.

Screaming words he could no longer understand, Clark stared with an expression of stone as the crystal stopped glowing and fell from Oliver's cheek, leaving a burn that would vanish soon enough. Oliver's eyes flew open and he sat up, making contact with Clark for a second before he lapsed into unconsciousness.

Walking across the sand, Clark kneeled down next to Oliver and retrieved his family crest before slipping it back into his pocket. The danger was over but the aftermath remained and Clark had a lot of work to do. Chloe would have gotten Lois help already but Clark was leaving nothing to chance, he needed to get back to her. Also he would have to come up with some way to explain to Lex what he had seen. Clark had an idea of sorts and it was a scenario that seemed to work well over the last six years.

There was no reason to believe it would be any different now.

Picking up Oliver, Clark Kent took comfort in one good result to come out of all this. Leaping into the air, Clark Kent, not Kal-El flew into the air, eager to greet the sky.

A/N – The scene of Clark's hovering over the ground is just my little homage to Superman Returns and the barn scene 


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: GONE BUT NOT OVER

Zod was gone but nothing was back to normal.

Standing at the front of the Luthor Mansion or rather what was left of the place, Clark surveyed the damage and wondered if Lex would even bother to rebuild it when the destruction he and Zod had caused was so thorough. Entire sections of the mansion had been demolished. One part of roof had collapsed entirely, unable to withstand the loss of too many support beams. Between his fight with Zod and the seismic disturbances caused by the black ship's hard drive or rather what was left of the Brain Interactive Construct; Clark wouldn't be surprised if the only thing holding up the mansion was paint.

_Good. _

Using his enhanced vision, he could see Chloe still leaning over Lois, tending to her. Speeding into the building, leaving a debris cloud behind him as he closed the distance between them, Clark tried not to panic at the sight of Lois' blood. As it was, seeing her like this had almost unhinged him enough to consider killing Zod.Right now, he needed to be in a better frame of mind to be of any use to her.

"Clark!" Chloe exclaimed with a look of visible relief at his appearance. She quickly got to her feet, and hurried towards him, meting him mid way with a big hug. "Thank God you're alright! Where's Zod?"

"_Gone_," Clark answered, his jaw tensing at the sound of the villain's name. Clark did not want to think about Zod right now. Even though the enemy was banished to his prison in the Zone, the destruction he had let behind was still here and Clark was going to have to deal with it. However, for now, his hatred subsided for a more pressing concern. Rushing to Lois' side, he swallowed in horror as he sighted the jagged piece of wood that continue to protrude from her left shoulder. Clark supposed he ought to be grateful that Lois was still unconscious and oblivious to the pain for now.

Seeing her like this once again sent fresh shivers of fear through him. Clark couldn't lose her! He couldn't even imagine it.

"Lois?" Clark's called out as he knelt down and tried to find the best way to remove the wood impaling her shoulder. "Hold on Lois, I'm right here."

Her lack of response made Clark even more terrified about losing her.

"Clark I've called an ambulance," Chloe explained quickly sensing his struggle to not panic and keep calm. However, she had no good new to offer him which made her almost as frustrated as he was about to be, 'but its going to take time. With everything that's happened today because of the earthquakes, they don't know when they can get here. You're going to have to take her to the hospital yourself. It will be far quicker than us waiting around for an ambulance to maybe show up."

"You're right," he nodded quickly, still somewhat dazed. He couldn't even hold her in his arms as he weighed the prudence of trying to remove the jagged stake from her shoulder. Getting her to the hospital though, that he _could_ do. That was he could manage. Get his Lois the help she needed before it was too late. Forcing the frantic thoughts from his mind, he focused and had some idea of what to do next. "Chloe help me," he lasked.

"What can I do?" Chloe answered without hesitation.

"Lift her up a bit so I can get to this bit of wood that's got her trapped," Clark ordered.

"Shouldn't we try and take it out?" Chloe asked as she lifted Lois' shoulder and was rewarded by a painful groan that hollowed out both her and Clark's stomach at the same time. "Without super strength, you should be yank it right out of her." Lois would scream at that but at least she would be free.

"No," he shook his head, having dealt with farm animals enough to know where prudence was needed when tending to their injuries. "Sometimes, keeping it where it is, slows down the loss of blood. If we take it out," he reached under Lois and snapped the protrusion at the base, freeing Lois from her trapped position against the floor. Like a bug on someone's science project. "If we take it out, she could bleed out even worse."

"Oh God," Chloe winced as she saw the broken edges of what used to be the polished wooden floorboards of the Luthor mansion, covered with Lois' blood. "Go Clark, get her to the hospital."

"I'm on my way," he said hoisting Lois off the ground. It made the urgency tighten like a noose around his neck when she barely stirred.

"Chloe, I left Oliver in your car. He's still unconscious. Drive him to the farm and keep him there. When he wakes up, tell him I'll explain everything when I get back. He needs to hear it from me." Clark tried to hide the guilt on his face but couldn't manage it.

"Clark it wasn't your fault…"

"Please," he said holding up his hand to keep her from saying anything further. "I don't want to talk about that right now. Just get going. I'll call you as soon as I can."

She nodded and realized that Clark's guilt was something she couldn't help him with. Although she wanted to go with him to the hospital, Chloe understood the importance of what he was asking of her in regards to keeping an eye on Oliver Queen. "I'll wait for your call."

Giving her a nod of acknowledgment, Clark turned to leave. With Lois firmly in his arms, he sped out of the mansion, creating a small tornado of debris and dust behind him as he let. Clark was no sooner out the door when he used his new found ability and pushed off the ground. He was gaining more and more control with each effort to fly and as he soared, could not help but feel a slight rush of exhilaration as he left the ground beneath him.

Holding Lois close to him, Clark wished more than anything that he could share this with her right now.

Oliver Queen woke up in the front seat of a strange car disorientated and aching.

For a few seconds, he merely sat on the front seat of the car, trying to discern where he was and how he'd come to be here. Looking around him, he made the obvious jump that he was in a car and judging by the interesting color scheme of the steering wheel cover, a _girl's_ car.

"Did anyone see the truck that hit me….?" Oliver groaned, asking no one in particular.

He was suffering what amounted to the worst hangover in creation and it was all the more annoying because Oliver didn't quite remember drinking in the first place. He wanted a good drunk to go with a hangover like this, he thought absurdly. It took a few minutes of staring at through the windscreen, processing slowly that he was at the Kent farm before suddenly, it returned in a kaleidoscope of swirling images.

_Clark_!

The memory returned with such force that Oliver instinctively reached for the door handle and pulled it open, needing to get out of the car. However, he had underestimated how much strength he had in his condition and spilled onto the dirt unceremoniously. All this succeeded in doing was bringing Chloe Sullivan out of the house and hurrying to him.

"Oliver!" She exclaimed upon reaching him. "Take it easy. You're pretty out of it."

"No kidding," Oliver deadpanned as he got a face full of dirt.

"I'm sorry I left you in the car," she apologized as she took him by the arm and helped him to his feet, "but you were a little heavy for me to carry into the house by myself."

"Hey I don't like fast women. Buy me dinner first at least," he retorted, trying to focus. "What the hell happened to me? I feel like five miles of bad road."

_Oh was he going to love this story_, Chloe thought with a frown. "You had a bit of an episode…"

Oliver stared at her with a raised brow as they both stumbled awkwardly up the porch steps of the Kent house.

"An episode?" he stared at her impatiently, wanting answers. "Of what, Veronica Mars?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, "I think I'll let Clark tell you," she returned just as firmly, not at all ready to touch that one. "I'm just the delivery girl."

"Great," Oliver muttered, having little energy to debate the matter. "I'm being stalled by Fed-Ex."

The Smallville Medical Centre was in chaos.

When Clark arrived at the familiar locale where he had so often come to visit his friends and family, he was revisited by images of Dark Thursday. The hallways were filled with injured people and frantic hospital staff attempting to cope with the overwhelming burden. Some people were languishing on gurneys in the corridors, while others spilled over from the waiting rooms, seeking some news about the loved ones being treated. Clark tried to fight the guilt that reminded him that he was inadvertently responsible for all of this.

After all, he had unleashed Zod.

Hurrying to admitting with Lois in his arms, fighting his way through the other people in the place, Clark hated how familiar he was with the route. Too many of his friends and family often wound up here, for one reason or another.

"Please I need help!" He called out to anyone who could hear. "My girlfriend….she's hurt!"

Fortunately, Lois' state attracted attention and a rather frazzled doctor hurried to him. The man looked like he was run of his feet as he approached them. "Nurse, get a gurney over here! We're taking this one in immediately!"

"Let me guess, she got hurt in the earthquake?" The doctor asked as he started giving Lois a quick examination, checking her vitals and such as the gurney was pushed towards them by an equally overworked nurse.

"Yeah," Clark nodded mutely, having no presence of mind to make up a good excuse. "Please can you help her?" He demanded, needing to hear someone say it.

"We'll do our best," the doctor offered him a faint smile but Clark noted he would not make any promises. Considering how many of the same requests he must have been getting from others today, Clark supposed that it was understandable.

When the gurney arrived, Clark had to let Lois go and watching her being spirited away from doctors and nurses down the hall towards the surgery room made Clark feel so helpless he could hardly stand it. Like one of the lost souls drifting through the hospital, he went through the motions of filling out the appropriate forms at administration, giving them just enough details to catalogue Lois as one of the many casualties of the day. All the while, he was bombarded thanks to his enhanced hearing with more and more horror stories about what had occurred it in what was being called Ash Wednesday.

Unable to do anymore and knowing he had other things to deal with while Lois was in surgery, he could see them treating her to the walls and knew it would be sometime before he was allowed to see her, Clark decided to leave the hospital for the moment. It was becoming too hard to block out all the voices and compounded his own guilt for the part he had played in their misery. After making the duty nurse promise that they'd call him as soon as Lois was out of surgery, Clark headed back towards the Kent farm to deal with Oliver.

He had some explaining to do and Oliver deserved to hear it from him.

It seemed to Oliver Queen that while he had his blackout, the world had gone completely and utterly bugfuck.

Eyes glued to the television set, the images on the screen were almost surreal. The news was even worse. Three nuclear power plants had been wiped off the map, killing hundreds in the immediate area. Despite the one mile blast radius originating from each plant, there was virtually no radiation fallout. Unfortunately, there were no survivors from any of the stations and no evidence to determine what was wrong. Authorities were attributing the catastrophe as some strange prelude that brought about the events being labeled as Ash Wednesday.

The entire globe had suffered the same seismic disturbances that had caused so much damage during Dark Thursday only this was prolonged and like before the cause was undetermined. It was almost certainly being attributed to some aberrant geological behavior but the exact nature of it was a mystery, particularly when it seemed that part of the effect was to effectively knock out every satellite orbiting the planet. Oliver supposed that it was some thing to be proud of that the images he was watching now was probably being broadcasted by Queen Industries hardware.

Still there were other mysteries, closer to home.

A trip to the bathroom found Oliver staring at himself in the mirror, examining bruises on his skin he did not remember acquiring, freshly healed scars that hadn't been there before. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember where he had been and the only image that came to mind was Clark and that amazing palace of ice, somewhere out in a snowy landscape. Drawing in a deep breath, Oliver was gripped with the fear that whatever had happened on Ash Wednesday, the missing hours of his life was at the heart of it.

He could see it in Chloe's eyes even though she was trying her hardest not to show it.

Stepping out of the bathroom at the sound of the front door opening and closing, Oliver saw Clark entered the Kent house. Chloe, who had been in the kitchen making them something to eat, hurried out of the kitchen.

"Clark, how's Lois doing?" She demanded anxiously.

Not looking at her but staring instead at Oliver, Clark answered, "they've got her in surgery right now. They couldn't tell me anything. I'm heading back there soon. I just came back to see how you guys were doing."

By that Clark meant him, Oliver guessed.

"We're just fine," Oliver stared him down. "Well Chloe is anyway. Me? I'm just a little confused about what the hell happened to me." The usually unflappable billionaire snapped with understandable anger.

"Chloe," Clark turned to his best friend for a moment, "maybe you should go to the hospital. I've got a lot of things to deal with," he tried not to throw a glimpse at Oliver when he said those words. "I don't want her to wake up alone."

"Gotcha," Chloe nodded in understanding. She would have been at the hospital herself if it were not for the fact that she had been asked by Clark to keep watch over Oliver post-Zod possession. "I want to go there anyway. I'll call you was soon as I hear anything."

"Thanks Chloe," Clark said offering her a little smile and surprising her with a kiss on the forehead, "for everything."

"Anytime Clark," Chloe smiled, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze before she left the duo their privacy. Besides, she really didn't want to be present for the fallout when Oliver was told what he had been up to the last two days.

Oliver didn't speak until Chloe had shut the door behind her.

"That bad huh?" He looked at Clark as he crossed the floor back to the sofa.

Clark let out a sigh and started to speak but Oliver cut him off.

"What happened in that place Clark?" Oliver lowered himself into the seat and almost glared at the Kansas farm boy. "What did you do to me?"

"It wasn't me Oliver," Clark declared, pacing the floor. "Oliver, I'm sorry about what happened. I really am but I wasn't myself."

"Wasn't yourself?" Oliver glared at him with an even more cutting stare. "Clark, you let that whatever it was hold me down while God only knows what happened."

There was no way around this, Clark thought with anguish. So far all Oliver knew of Clark Kent was that he had powers. No doubt the billionaire classified him as just another meteor freak. There was no reason for Oliver to suspect that Clark was anything but what he seemed, a farm boy with some extraordinary powers. Clark could maintain the ruse he supposed, fabricate some story and tell Oliver that the same thing that happened to Lex Luthor had happened to him and leave Krypton and Fine out of the equation.

However, he could not. For his part in this mess that had encompassed the globe, Clark owed Oliver the truth.

Slowly, he began to explain about his origins, about Krypton and the meteor showers. Clark spoke for almost thirty minutes without pause and during that time, Oliver Queen merely sat and listened, saying nothing. A brow arched in surprise every now and then over some of the more fantastic parts of the tale but all in all Oliver did not interrupt. Clark revealed how Milton Fine had infused him with red kryptonite, used its influence to convince him to release Zod before implanting the General into a new body.

When Clark was finished, he waited for Oliver to answer.

It sounded so far fetched that Oliver almost didn't believe it. No, rather did not _want_ to believe it. However, he knew what he had seen on the television set, the destruction and the chaos. Hadn't he paid someone to find out how exactly Lex had managed to storm the Pentagon that day? Lex hadn't been able to answer. Even under the threat of death, he hadn't been able to explain just how he was able to walk through a hail of bullets.

"Oh God," Oliver let out a heavy breath, trying to deal with it.

"Oliver I am so sorry," Clark repeated himself. "I never meant to hurt anyone…."

"Just stop it," Oliver retorted. "Don't apologize, okay? I can't deal with that right now. Lois," he looked up at Clark. "Is she okay?"

"No Oliver," Clark shook his head somberly. "She's not."


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: DAMAGE CONTROL

Clark's first impulse after telling Oliver what had happened was to return to Lois' side but the truth was, there was little they could do at the hospital until she was out of surgery. Telling himself that Chloe would alert him the moment that changed, Clark and Oliver embarked on a break neck course of damage control.

While most of Clark's turn as Kal had taken place at the Luthor mansion, Zod had travelled extensively across the country. The destruction of the three nuclear power plants however, ensured that there was no one left to identify Oliver although this did not make the archer any happier. Still, as both Zod and Kal, they had both been seen at the Luther Corp building displaying some extraordinary powers. Neither felt too comfortable with that situation and thus decided that while Metropolis was still in a state of confusion, this was the best time to do something about it.

"We should have taken the truck," Oliver grumbled as he tried not to look down. God only knows how fast they were moving. This should have been an exhilarating experience but all Oliver could feel was terrified. Beneath them was a view he had only ever seen through the window of a plane. What was even more astonishing was the fact that he was seeing this thanks to Clark carrying him through the air.

"No time," Clark said over the sound of rushing wind. "We need to get there fast, before the power returns to the building. Half of Metropolis is blacked out. If we go in now and destroy those security tapes while their system is down, they won't even know we were there."

"Lex knows," Oliver pointed out, closing his eyes and trying not to get sick. It would be most undignified if he threw up from this height, not to mention severely traumatize whomever was down there to experience its landing.

"Yeah but Lex didn't remember a thing when Zod took over his body," Clark explained. "He knew that Fine had to prepare him to accept Zod's essence. If we tell him that's what Fine did to both of us, there's a good chance he'll believe it."

"I guess you're right," Oliver found he could not refute that statement since he had hired a mercenary to try and get the truth out of Lex shortly after Dark Thursday. Lex had remembered nothing either so it could very well go down as Clark described it. "Its not like I have super powers now to prove it anyway."

"Exactly," Clark nodded. "Once we get the security footage, there won't be any evidence either other than Lex's word."

"Yeah because we both know that Lex is one to _let things go_, " Oliver snorted sarcastically. "And what about Lana?"

Clark bristled at that, recalling all too well what he had said and done to Lana while Lex and Zod had been in Metropolis. His words to her had been particularly sharp and Clark knew that despite how he felt about Lois, there was still apart of him that had difficulty dealing with Lana being with Lex. If she had gone to anyone else after their break up, Clark might have handed it better but her choice of Lex, who had not only been a trusted friend but was also showing his dark side rather prolifically, still made Clark sick to his stomach.

Still, no matter how angry he was with Lana, he could not deny that where she was now had a lot to do with how he had treated her. He had never been able to trust Lana and considering how easy it was to be with Lois, how well she taken the truth, Clark wondered if he had done Lana a disservice by underestimating her so much.

For the first time in too long, Clark finally made up his mind about what to do with Lana Lang.

"Let me deal with Lana," Clark said quietly as the roof of the Luthor building came into sight. "I think its overdue."

As expected, the Luthor Corp building was empty.

When the seismic disturbances had started shaking the city apart, the entirety of Luthor Corp's staff would have been evacuated from the building as per standard emergency procedures. Walking through the empty hallways, Clark couldn't help finding eerie that the place he had was so accustomed to see bustling with activity, looked like a ghost town. This was the central hub of the Luthor Empire and seeing it like this was unsettling.

Still, there was no denying that this building like so many others through Metropolis had become death traps during the tremors. Fissures ran through the walls, with broken glass, mortar and gyprock fragment sprayed across the carpeted floors. Some rooms were soaking wet, no doubt a result of the automated sprinkler systems that activated when the sudden blackouts caused power surges that resulted in small electrical fires.

Clark scanned the rooms as they made their way through the empty corridors, heading towards the security station where all the security footage for the last 24 hours was kept. From previous visits, Clark knew roughly where it was but another quick scan with his x-ray vision pinpointed the location exactly.

"It's at the room at the far end of the hall," Clark announced after reaching the appropriate floor.

"How can you tell?" Oliver inquired, surveying the damage with morbid fascination.

"Oh I've got x-ray vision," Clark explained.

"X-ray vision too?" Oliver growled and paused, staring at him. "Clark, what _other_ powers do you have?"

Clark supposed that there was no harm in telling him since Oliver knew just about everything, his alien origins, Zod and the fortress after all this. Besides, it was nice to not hide the truth from his friends. Clark could get used to it. Reciting the laundry list of abilities as they reached the security room and entered, Clark was grateful that all electronic devices in the place were fried beyond repair. Lex would have a field day with this particular conversation.

"Talk about being outclassed," Oliver muttered with a frown as they stepped inside the central hub of Luthor Corp's security after Clark twisted the lock open to gain entry into the room.

Clark chuckled, "hey you wear green leather well." He gave the man a smirk.

"I hate you," Oliver snorted before taking a look inside the room. It was more or less what they expected, with wall to wall monitor screens, sophisticated listening equipment, computer panels and servers containing all the video and audio footage recorded on a day to day basis.

"This is it Clark," Oliver looked around. "We've got to destroy all of it."

"Right," Clark nodded and concentrated. Using his heat vision, the red beams of energy moved through every piece of equipment, causing it to burn. Oliver stepped out of the room as it began to fill with noxious smoke and wondered if the sprinklers would kick in this time. Somehow, he doubted it with power extinguished throughout the building. In any case, it was a moot point as Clark put out the flames a short time later with his super breath.

"Nice job," Oliver remarked as he returned and saw that every piece of electrical equipment, even the screens, had been turned into a charred mess of a fused metal, plastic and glass. There was no way that any footage of either him or Clark would survive this treatment. "Clark, if you weren't such a boy scout, I suggest a career in Industrial espionage."

"Very funny," Clark gave him a look. "We better get out of here. I want to get back to Smallville. We should check out the Luthor Mansion too, just in case. Lex will probably be on his way back to town now that everything has settled down."

"I'll hire a car and drive back," Oliver suggested, not looking forward to flying again or worse yet, being carried.

"Don't be such a wuss," Clark grinned. "My way is faster."

"Your way doesn't have airsick bags," he returned.

Whatever response Clark was going to make was silenced by the sound of his cell phone playing the first few bars from 'Star Wars'.

"You're kidding me…." Oliver sniggered.

"I'll drop you," Clark warned and reached into his coat to answer the call. He recognized the number immediately, "Chloe?"

Both Clark and Oliver entered the doors of the Smallville Medical Centre and were greeted by the same chaos that Clark had seen when he had brought Lois here earlier. The number of sick and injured had not thinned out and though it appeared some services had been restored, the after effects of the seismic disturbances continued to send ripples across the community of Smallville and throughout the globe.

Flying back to the farm, Clark took the truck to the hospital instead of risking another flight. Oliver spent much of the drive on his cell phone, speaking to his staff at Queen Industries who had feared that their employer had been harmed in the disasters that had affected Star City as well as the rest of the globe. Oliver supposed it was a justifiable concern considering that he had been missing for almost two days. It was still difficult for the emerald archer to comprehend that two days of his life was unaccounted for and that someone else had occupied his body during that time.

"I don't care what it costs," Oliver declared over the phone as they entered the crowded hallways. "Use whatever resources we have to aid the disaster relief. This mess isn't going to clean up after itself and we've seen just how effective FEMA was after Katrina. We do not want a repeat of that. Get a hold of Lucius Fox at Wayne Enterprises, that kid who's running Kord Industries and Simon Stagg. Yes, I know Stagg's not particularly civic minded but tell the old coot disaster relief should be tax deductible. The others will know we need to pull together at a time like this. I'm switching off my cell now, I'll check in with you in an hour."

Clark was barely listening to Oliver and knew that part of the man's determination to mount disaster relief was to assuage his own guilt at what Zod had done using him. Clark supposed that Oliver found it no easier to forgive himself than Clark did because of red kryptonite. Whether or not it was their doing to begin with, the end results around them could not be denied. Scanning through the walls of the hospital floor, he located Chloe inside a private room with Lois. Whether or not it was because Lois was a senator's aide or simply because her injuries were severe enough to warrant a room of her own, Clark couldn't tell but the fact that Lois was out of surgery had to be a good sign.

"She's this way," Clark looked over his shoulder to tell Oliver, resisting the urge to use his super speed to cover the distance to Lois in a blink of an eye. He was worried enough about her to not really care.

"Lead on," Oliver snapped the cell shut and slid it into his jacket.

Clark did answer, thinking only of Lois. Even from where he was he could see how pale she was. Seeing her weak was not something Clark Kent was accustomed to and it didn't take him long to realize he didn't much like it either. He was used to seeing Lois strong, fierce, almost preternatural in her passion. Her fearlessness left him in awe and since they had been together, Lois had a way of making him feel as invincible in spirit as he was in the flesh.

"Clark," Chloe greeted as the two men stepped into the room, rising from the chair she had parked herself in since Lois had come out of surgery. "I tried to call you back to tell you what room…"

"Its okay," Clark replied dismissively and went to Lois' side. She was still unconscious and a fresh surge of panic tightened his chest at the sight of her. Leaning over her, Clark brushed her cheek with his fingers tenderly. "What did the doctor say?"

"Well," Chloe let out a deep breath, collating the doctor's diagnosis and his prognosis in her head to recite for Clark's benefit. "That piece of wood punctured her right lung and ruptured her spleen. The head trauma isn't too bad, she's got a nasty concussion but she'll be okay Clark," Chloe came to his side and squeezed his arm with reassurance. "She'll be okay."

Clark released a held breath and reached for Lois' hand. "Thank God," he whispered under his breath.

Oliver stood at minimum safe distance, remembering nothing but feeling sick nonetheless that he had been the one who did this to Lois. However, the feeling was almost as awful as seeing Clark clutching her hand and knowing that not only had he almost killed Lois but it seemed he had lost her well and truly before that.

"You and Lois?" Oliver found himself asking before he could stop himself.

Clark froze and looked over his shoulder. _Hell. Hell. Hell._

Clark cursed himself for being a fool. That wasn't Oliver who had said he was perfectly alright with their relationship, that had been the Brainiac construct. Of course the Construct would know about Lois. Undoubtedly it had watched Clark weeks before hand, waiting for the opportune moment to approach the Kryptonian, disguised as Oliver, saying all the right things.

"I'm sorry," Clark stammered. "It just kind of happened…"

"Guys," Chloe rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I think this is a discussion that can wait until later."

"Hey look it's fine," Oliver recovered his composure and his surprise. "Its not like I expected her not to move on…" however, he couldn't deny that it hurt to know she was truly lost to him now. He still cared about Lois and suspected he always would.

Lois Lane would be one of the losses in his life that Oliver Queen would always regret.

"Oliver…" Clark tried to explain, his fingers still intertwined in Lois' own. "I'm sorry; I should have told you before this. With everything that happened, it just slipped my mind."

"Clark you don't have to explain anything," Oliver swallowed away his hurt and reinforced his composure with his usual flippant bravado. "We broke up and you got around to making your move. I don't blame you for that."

"You gotta be kidding me," a weakened yet irate voice interrupted. "You guys are NOT a having a pissing contest over me next to _my_ hospital bed."

Clark's head snapped around and he found his hand being squeezed back weakly.

"Lois!" He burst out, lifting her hand to his lips. "You're awake."

"How you doing Smallville?" Lois stared at him through droopy eyelids, a small smile of affection crossing her face as she held his gaze for a few seconds. In that few seconds, volumes were exchanged as she saw how happy and relieved he was to see her and she showed him how happy she was to wake up to his hand in hers.

"Miss me?" She asked cockily but her voice small and fragile like the rest of her.

"Lois," Clark blinked to contain the emotions churning inside him at knowing she was alright and everything was going to be okay after that. "Oh God I thought I lost you."

"Never happen Smallville," she uttered a small laugh before surveying the room through her rather hazy vision. "Everybody's kind of blurry so I'm guessing I'm on some serious drugs."

"Only the good stuff for you," Chloe said happily as she stood on the other side of the bed, reaching for Lois with a careful squeeze of her shoulder. "We were so worried."

"Hey," Lois blinked a few times, trying to focus. Her voice was not much more than a whisper and was getting slurred the more she spoke. Licking her dry lips, she regarded those around her, "Takes more than an intergalactic general from a phantom dimension to do me in."

"Lois," Oliver stepped forward reluctantly, uncertain whether or not she would want to see him since he was the one who did this to her. "Lois I am so sorry…"

"Ollie," Lois stopped him before he could say anything further, knowing him well enough to see through the façade he was projecting for the benefit of the others in the room. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I'm myself," Oliver answered unable to meet her eyes, especially after hearing Chloe's recital of all of Lois' injuries. "The jury is still out on okay."

Lois wished she could say more to take away the hurt she saw in his eyes. Even though she didn't love Ollie, it was not easy to forget that she could have. Had it not been for one kiss, she would be with Ollie, not Clark right now. Lois opened her mouth to speak but couldn't think of anything to say that would make this easier on him. Like Clark, he would have to deal with what had happened on his own. She only wished he had someone at his side to make it easier since it wasn't going to be her.

"I think we need to let Lois get some rest," Chloe spoke, ending the moment between the former lovers. "Let's give these two a moment," she looked up at Oliver sympathetically, seeing a mixture of guilt and jealousy in his eyes.

"Yeah," he nodded, stepping away and throwing a glance of acknowledgment at Clark, "let's do that."

Allowing Chloe to lead him, Oliver left the room without further word.

Clark watched him go briefly and turned back to Lois once they were alone. "Don't ever do that to me again," he said basking in the sight of. "I'm not strong enough to lose you."

"Sure you are," she smiled at him, getting drowsier by the moment as fatigue and drugs created a potent siren song of sleep. "You saved the world Clark."

"We saved the world," Clark returned automatically. "Lois, without you and Chloe I wouldn't have been able to send Zod back to the Zone and I'm not strong enough to lose you." He reaffirmed. "When I thought that you could be dead…" his voice shook and he had to drop his eyes to the floor to compose himself. "I just started to shut down, I couldn't think…"

"Hey it's okay," she made herself say to stop the emotional rollercoaster he was on. Ill or not, Lois couldn't bear to see him like this. "I'm not ready to leave you just yet." Lois assured him. "Got to win that Pulitzer, read the Joy Luck Club and drive you crazy the first time we take a trip together. Can't go before all that's done can I?"

Clark uttered a small laugh, "I guess not," he gave her a little smile. "God, you make me feel good." He stared at her with wonder. Even like this, she could lift his spirits up and Clark became more certain than ever before of how he felt. It was time he told her.

"Lois," Clark stared into her eyes, "I love you."

Lois strength returned long enough for her to react to that statement and when she did; she rewarded him with another radiant smile. However, she was Lois and being Lois, she simply could not allow herself to react the way most girls did when presented with such news.

"Well _duh_ Smallville," she met his gaze with a gleam of mischief. "Not telling me anything new here. How can you _not_ love me? I'm pretty amazing."

"Right," Clark laughed a little more, knowing it when his girl was trying to make him feel better. "I forgot."

"You so need me around to keep you on your toes," Lois reminded and started to feel the last of her energy reserves draining. "Clark, I hate to do this but I think I'm not going to be able to stay awake much longer…" her voice was fading fast.

"Then don't," he retorted and leaned over her and planted a soft kiss against her lips and then her forehead. "You rest, Chloe will be here. Oliver and I need to deal with a couple more things and then I'll be back."

"Clark," Lois' eyes caught his again at the mention of Oliver's name. "Take it easy on Ollie, okay? He's dealing with being used to destroy the world and you and me being a thing, all at once. That's a lot to take in."

"I know," Clark appreciated all too well what the man was going through. "You get some rest." He kissed her again on the forehead and released her hand, somewhat reluctantly. "I won't be long."

Lois nodded, watching Clark draw away towards the door. Letting her exhaustion catch up to her, she added finally before she closed her eyes, "Hey Smallville," she uttered softly, halting him in mid-step.

"Yeah Lois?" Clark looked over his shoulder at her.

"I love you too," she smiled before closing her eyes and letting sleep take her.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: LONG OVERDUE

Even though he remembered the destruction prior to Ash Wednesday, having seen Zod rip through walls like paper, Lex Luthor was not prepared for the sight that awaited him when he returned to the mansion.

His home of six years had been nothing less than routed. An entire section of the building had collapsed and the lawns were crisscrossed with fissures, broken glass from every shattered window and other signs of violence. Standing outside, studying every piece of smashed brick, broken window and other bit of destruction, Lex couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. His father had taught him to rein in his emotions, practically from birth; however, seeing this scene filled him with a profound sense of loss.

This had been his home for the last six years. Lex was rather surprised by how attached he had become to it. This place had been the scene of much tragedy and much happiness but Lex had still hoped to raise his child here with Lana.

"Lex, are you alright?" Lana came up along side of him, recognizing the pain she saw in his eyes as he stared at his home.

They had returned to Smallville only a short time ago, after Lionel had called them while they were on route to Hawaii, informing them that everything to do with Zod and Kal-El was over. Lionel didn't give many details only to say that Lois Lane had managed to destroy the device that Zod was using to reshape the world in the image of Krypton. She had been hurt badly in the process but apparently, what she had done was enough to free Oliver and Clark from being vassals of the Kryptonians. Lana, who had seen first hand such a transformation, knew that much of the story was true.

"Seeing the place like this…" Lex said dropping his gaze, unable to look any more.

"I'm sorry Lex," Lana tried to be comforting but she hadn't lived here long enough to grow an emotional attachment to the place.

"I know it's just a place," he replied, lifting his eyes to hers. "But it's been my home for the past six years I sort of got attached to it."

"I know," Lana nodded in understanding. She had felt similarly when she left Aunt Nell's farm for the last time. "We can always rebuild it Lex," she suggested. "If that is what you want, why don't we?"

Lex lifted his eyes to the building, "I don't know Lana," he sighed. "Maybe, it is time to let this place go. Maybe we should start our family someplace else…?"

Lana did not know what to say to that and was almost grateful that they were interrupted so she didn't have to. A car drove into the driveway from the main track and Lana recognized the truck immediately as belonging to Clark Kent. However, he wasn't alone. In the seat next to him was Oliver Queen. Lana glanced at Lex and saw his jaw tightening.

"Lex, let's hear them out."

"Why not?" Lex snorted, his hand moving instinctively to his throat where there was still ugly bruises of Clark's fingers against his skin. Most of his injuries had been superficial but Lex could not forget how intently both men had tried to kill him. "I can't take the moral high ground after Dark Thursday can I?" He took her hand and flinched at the white scar in the centre of her palm where Zod had driven a poker straight to it.

"This is going to be fun," Oliver gave Clark a look as they climbed out of the vehicle and saw Lex and Lana surveying the damage done to the Luthor Mansion.

"Be nice," Clark ordered under his breath. "Damage control, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah," Oliver waved his hand dismissively at Clark before the two men approached Lex and Lana. Despite himself, Oliver could not help be struck by how much destruction he as Zod and Clark had been able to inflict on the grand looking mansion during their last battle. It would take a massive overhaul to return this building to its former glory but Lex had the money to do it.

"Back to the scene of the crime?" Lex asked snidely as they both approached.

"Okay we deserve that," Oliver retorted, giving Clark another look at why this was not a good idea. "Look, we're just here to say sorry Lex. We don't remember much what happened but judging by everyone's colorful descriptions, it wasn't pretty."

"That's putting it mildly," Lex tried not to look at Clark or notice the way Clark was looking at Lana. "You killed a lot of people and injured just as many."

"No more than you did when you were taken over by Zod, Lex," Clark had to interject. "We didn't come here to fight," his gaze fixed on Lana's, "we came here to apologize."

"Sure Clark," Lex said sarcastically. "Go ahead and apologize for nearly killing us both."

"Lex," Lana interrupted and gave her fiancé an imploring look, "_please_."

"Look Lex," Oliver broke into the conversation before this became ugly. "I came here for more than just a social call. Could we please talk in private?"

Lex raised a brow at that, not liking the idea of leaving Clark alone with Lana but knew that she would be displeased with him if he tried to be too possessive. With a sigh, Lex realized he had little choice but to give Oliver the audience he requested and reminded himself that it was _he_ whom Lana was marrying, not Clark Kent.

Still even now, old habits died hard.

"Of course," Lex turned to Lana and tried not to throw Clark a dark look. "Lana could you give us a moment?"

"Sure Lex," Lana said happy for the trust, "Clark, how about some coffee in the guesthouse? Apparently that's still standing."

Clark was happy to oblige and found that he was pleased that they could talk as friends despite everything that happened. Neither spoke however, until they reached the small garden framing the walk to the front door of the guest house. Clark knew he was being paranoid but he had no desire to talk honestly with Lana with any structure belonging to Lex over his head. It was not an issue of jealousy but prudence. Lex's liking for surveillance equipment was a little too intense for Clark's comfort.

"Lana, let's talk here," he said moving toward the grass under one of the tall trees at the far end of the garden.

"Alright Clark," Lana studied him, guessing he had more to say than just a simple apology. For once she held back the questions until he was ready to speak. Besides, if there was one thing Lana had learnt by now, Clark Kent would not tell her anything unless he wished to.

How many times had he done this? Clark wondered as he stood his ground and looked across the space between them, trying to tell her the truth but never quite managing. For how it had turned out between them, Clark knew that he had much to account for. Perhaps if he had trusted her, things might have turned out different. Or perhaps they would still be apart but at least the truth wouldn't be hanging above them like the Sword of Damocles.

"Lana…" he started to speak.

"You're Kal-El, aren't you?"

Clark stared at her. "What?"

"You are Kal-El," Lana stated firmly. "You've _always_ been Kal-El. Fine did something to you when he used Oliver but you are Kal-El. When those two Kryptonians came here from the black ship a year and half ago, they were looking for Kal-El. It wasn't someone who just showed up at the same time as they did, it was someone who was already _here_."

The urge to lie was overwhelming but Clark could not do it. He could not lie to her, yet _again_. Exhaling the breath he had held while he debated the decision which really, he had made before this, Clark met her eyes and nodded.

"Yes," he answered softly. "I'm Kal-El."

Lana blinked, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted of her shoulders. It had been so long since she had been free of it that its absence left her somewhat drained. "Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, a pained look on her face.

"Lana you have to understand," Clark explained in a speech he had prepared for five years but never had a chance to use until now. "From the moment I could walk, my parents taught me never to reveal the secret. I didn't know I was Kal-El until our freshman year. All I knew what that I was different and because I was different, people could come and take me away if they knew it. At first, I hid it from you because that's what my parents taught me to do but the more different I became, the more powers I started to show, I became afraid that you wouldn't understand."

"Clark I loved you more than I will ever love anything again," Lana declared without hesitation. "I would have understood. I wish you had given me the chance."

_Loved_. She said loved. Clark ached a little at hearing that even though he knew how he felt for Lois was eternal. "I'm sorry Lana," he apologized sincerely. "You'll never know how sorry I am. I just didn't want you to think I was some kind of freak."

"Clark, you've been there every time I was in trouble,' she looked at him with affection, knowing that she would always love him but their time was past. They both knew it. "Now for the first time I understand how you could be there all the time or why every time someone was in danger, Chloe, Peter, your parents, even Lex, we _somehow_ managed to survive. You've been there for all of us. You should have given us the benefit of the doubt."

"I know," he couldn't disagree there. He had underestimated how Pete and Chloe had reacted greatly and now it appeared he had underestimated Lana too.

Lana reached for his hand and squeezed it tight, "thank you for trusting me now. It's too little too late but I appreciate the gesture. I hope you know that I'll never betray that trust Clark," Lana stared at him with a look that he knew to indicate that she meant it. "Whatever happens, I'll protect your secret, just as you've always protected me."

"Thank you Lana," Clark said feeling so much regret because she was right, he should have given her the benefit of the doubt but it was too late now. That moment was past and both of them had embarked on different paths.

Their futures whatever it might be would run in a parallel course but they would never run together.

"You okay?" Oliver asked as Clark drove them back to the farm.

The Boy Scout had been quiet after they left the Mansion and Oliver guessed he was still dealing after his talk with Lana. Man he was glad that he was an arrogant little snot when he was a teenager and was incapable of having _that_ serious a relationship with any girl. Still, Clark was with Lois now, a thing that Oliver was getting used to even though he knew it was unfair that he should feel jealous. He had more or less moved on when this whole thing with Zod had started and what feelings he had on the matter was mostly a hint of regret at what might have been.

"Yeah I'm fine," Clark answered throwing a glance his way before facing the road again. "How did things go with you and Lex?" He asked, not wishing to discuss this subject because it was still too raw.

"Good," Oliver answered, recognizing the tact and going with it. "Lex has agreed to join the disaster relief initiative I'm setting up with Wayne Enterprise, Kord Industries and a few other corporations."

"Its good that they're helping," Clark replied thinking about the aftermath of Ash Wednesday and how much work was still left to recover from the disaster.

"Well not all us corporate types are like Lex," Oliver threw him a grin. "Lucius Fox is a good man even if he is only running Wayne Enterprises for that idiot Wayne and the Wayne Foundation does good work. Ted Kord's been pouring a lot of money into helping the underprivileged so he was more than happy to get on board."

"Great," Clark commended, impressed that Oliver knew how to work the system to help people less fortunate than him. "Hey did Lex have any questions about Zod?"

"A few but you were right," Oliver answered, "he did buy the amnesia story."

"I figured he would since he used it himself," Clark retorted unsurprised that Lex had made inquiries. "Did he say anything about the footage at Luther Corp or the mansion?"

"Not much," Oliver answered. "Then again, you know Lex. He wouldn't tell us even if there was _anything_ to tell."

"True," Clark nodded, knowing Lex all to well after the last few years. "Lana is going to let me know if he decides to pursue this."

Oliver raised a brow, "Really?"

"Yeah," Clark looked pensively ahead once more. "I told her the truth about me. Well most of it anyway. I don't think it was that much of a surprise to her but she was really good about it." Letting out a heavy sigh, he threw a glance at the other man. "I really messed up there Oliver. I should have told her a long time ago."

"Hey Clark," the older man patted him on the shoulder. "You can look back at all the mistakes you've made and regret them but they don't change with time and the more you keep looking, the more you forget the good times and remember only the bad. You and Lana have walked away friends. Most people don't even get that much. You've got Lois now," Oliver surprised himself by being able to say that without any resentment, "take what you learnt from Lana and make it work this time."

"I intend to," Clark answered firmly because if this entire experience with Zod and red kryptonite had taught him anything, it was how much Lois loved him and what she had been willing to do to save him. Not only Lois but Chloe too and underestimating the people that he cared about was not a mistake he was making again any time soon.

"Hey Oliver," Clark spoke up as the Kent farm came into view. "You're a good friend you know."

Oliver threw Clark a grin, "thank you Clark. I know it would have been simpler for you to kill Zod when he took over my body but I appreciate the lengths you went to get me back."

"Hey it was my fault to begin with," Clark pointed out.

"It was," Oliver smirked, "but now that you got this flying thing down, I do have a favor to ask."

"A favor?" Clark looked at him suspicious. "What kind of favor?"

Oliver grinned. "Have you ever been to Star City?"


	19. Chapter 19

EPILOGUE

He was cheating.

He knew that. However, all was fair in love and war and when one had a friend who was not only an alien with incredible powers, like flight and supervision but also owed you one, it was a foolish man who didn't take _some_ advantage of it.

Oliver Queen watched the building from a roof top across the street. His target was a modest two storey building, the first floor being home to a somewhat successful mother and daughter floral business and the second floor being the apartment where they resided. Clark had been less than happy to lead Oliver back here after searching the city for only a day and half. However, a timely reminder about how it was his green arrow costume that allowed Clark to kiss Lois the first time and discover his feelings for her, silenced the argument promptly.

Besides, it seemed Fate had a sense of humor. The place was called the Sherwood Florist.

"You are so totally pathetic," the deriding voice stated behind him.

Damn. She was _good_.

Turning around, he found himself standing before the object of his search, the tall, svelte blond in the fishnets and high black boots calling herself Black Canary and for whom the word 'bombshell' was created entirely for.

"How long were you planning on waiting out here?" She stared at him with a look of clear exasperation as she regarded him with arms folded.

"Oh I was going to give it another half an hour before I made my move," Oliver gave her his most charming smile.

"Your move?" The Canary snorted, "what makes you think that I'd be the least interested in _any_ of your moves? Men who stalk me make me nervous."

"Stalk is such an ugly word," Oliver retorted. "I was just checking you out in case you were some psycho chick who just likes wearing fish nets in public."

The girl was trying not to smile but she was no more immune to charm then the rest of her gender, "Says the man who's dressed up like Robin Hood."

Looking over his shoulder at the store, Oliver added smugly. "Well considering what you named your store, I wouldn't be surprised if this was your way of grabbing _my_ attention. I mean Star City is the home of the Green Arrow."

"Since when?" She retorted indignantly, dropping her arms to rest on her hands on her hips. "You got named in _Metropolis_ by the National Inquisitor. Wasn't that article right next to the one about the cow who gave birth to a Buick? If anything, Star City should be called the home of the _Black Canary_."

"And yet you still named your store after me," he pointed out. "Come on Maid Marian, lighten up. We would have run into each other sooner or later, so I jumped the gun a bit."

"You are not so charming that you can talk your way out of this," she declared but had not moved which gave Oliver an indication that she was not as indignant as she appeared.

"Really?" Oliver replied, liking her spunk. It reminded him of Lois somewhat but the boots definitely made her a lot sexier. "And here I was about to ask you to join me."

"Dream on Green Arrow," she retorted and turned on her heels, walking toward the edge of the roof to make her exit. "I don't work with partners."

"Who said I wanted to be partners?" He said flippantly. "I actually meant joining me on a date?'

"_A date_?" She stopped and turned around with a look of surprise. "You're kidding. This is how you ask someone out on a date?"

"Well what would you like Maid Marian?" Oliver followed her, closing the distance between them. "Me hanging off your balcony and serenading you? Isn't that how Robin Hood used to do it?"

The Canary glared at him through narrowed blue eyes and once again, Oliver thought that blond hair really worked for her.

"What would this date involve?" She asked, her brow crooked in interest.

_Success_. Oliver smiled inwardly before answering, "Nothing too romantic and something simple. There's a drug shipment coming in from Gotham at midnight. 100 kilos of china white being unloaded off a Columbian freighter. I figured we'd take care of that and then maybe have a little light supper."

Damn. He was _good_.

"Sounds like it could be fun," she remarked, finally gracing him with a smile, "The Black Canary and the Green Arrow working together."

"You mean the Green Arrow _and_ the Black Canary," he corrected her.

"Why does your name get to be first?" She stared at him as they started to leave the roof.

"Because, I'm the Green Arrow and Star City is the home of the Green Arrow."

"Green Arrow _Bandit_," she snorted, "and the Bandit _always_ comes last."

"In what universe?"

"Haven't you ever seen Smokey and the Bandit…" She winked at him.

"That's a cool movie," Oliver commented. Great taste in movies too. This could be love, "Maid Marian."

"Stop calling me that," she growled, "_Bandit_."

The man was infuriating but Dinah Lance did so like _those_.

"What did you have to do for Oliver in Star City?" Lois asked as she sat on the p.

Three weeks after the whole debacle with Zod and red kryptonite, Clark was finally allowed to take Lois home. Because she was still convalescing, Martha had insisted that Lois come to stay at the Kent farm and Clark was thrilled at the idea of having Lois under the same roof again even if the irony was _not_ lost on him.

So much had happened in the last three weeks with Clark running the same exhausting routine he had in the aftermath of Dark Thursday, helping secretly with repairs during the night while carrying out the routine of his life during the day. However, even if it was Fine that had tricked Kal into opening the Phantom Zone and unleashing Zod, Clark still felt as responsible as Oliver for all the destruction that had taken place.

"Oh nothing, I just had to help him track down some wildlife," Clark answered as he was seated next to Lois on the porch swing. A small smile had crossed his lips at thinking how Oliver had shanghaied him into tracking down Star City's newest heroine, a very attractive blond calling herself the Black Canary.

"Do I even _want_ to know?" Lois asked giving him a look before nestling into crook of Clark's shoulder, snuggling closer to him. It felt good to be in his arms again. This was what Kal could never compete with, the quiet moments where they could just sit together and talk. Lois never knew something so simple could be so fulfilling and with a little smile of her own, she found it equally ironic that this little piece of heaven had come from such an unlikely source.

If only either of them had even guessed.

"Probably not," Clark chuckled. "But I think Oliver's going to be okay about the two of us seeing each other."

"I'm glad," Lois said sincerely pleased by that news. "He's a good guy. I would have hated for things to end badly because of us."

"Me too," Clark agreed, kissing her gently on the hair as he pulled her close to him. "Oliver's a good friend."

"You know telling Lana the truth was also a good call Smallville," she raised her eyes to him. "I'm glad you did that. She actually called me on the phone and we had a good chat about things."

Clark wasn't so sure how much he liked that but if Lois decided this was a good thing, he would trust her word on that. "About what?" He asked attempting to sound indifferent though he was very curious. Girlfriends exchanging stories could not be a good thing.

"Don't be nosy Smallville," she teased, "just girl talk. Chloe and I are meeting her at the Talon for lunch tomorrow."

"Why does that fill me with fear?" Clark gave her a playful look.

"Because you're smart," Lois winked. "So be afraid, Kal-El, be _very_ afraid."

Hearing his Kryptonian name sounded odd coming from Lois but it was one of those things he was getting used to. As always, Lois' ability to deal astonished Clark. She had taken the truth about his heritage, about Jor-El, Clark still couldn't get used to her calling him Joe and red kryptonite better than he had ever believed she would. Of course he had kept one thing from her and swore Chloe to secrecy until he had a chance to tell Lois himself.

"I have a surprise for you." Clark remarked as he stood up and took her by the hand.

"Another surprise Clark?" She looked at him with a raised brow. "I don't know if I can handle any more this month." She reminded. "It's been a pretty full couple of weeks."

Not to be discouraged, Clark let her off the porch and looked up. "Do you trust me?" He asked wearing a serious expression that immediately engendered the same from her.

"Do you even have to ask?" Lois gave him a look.

Smiling, Clark wrapped his arms around Lois' waist and knew that she'd get her arms in order soon enough. Pushing off the ground once he was holding her securely, they lifted gently into the air at first, rising off the ground gradually. A slight wind brushed at their skin as he took them up gracefully, thankful that practice had helped him to perfect this moment for her. He watched Lois' face, waiting for her reaction, delighted at last to share this with her.

At first Lois didn't know what Clark was up to until she felt the breeze whipping strands of hair against her face and she looked down to see the farm growing smaller and smaller beneath their feet. "Oh my God Clark!" Lois exclaimed, panicked at first and immediately tightened her arms around his neck before realizing that they weren't falling to the ground to face a horrible death.

"Are we really flying?" Lois asked after a moment, her voice filling with awe.

"Either that or that pilates class you've been taking is doing wonders for your weight," he smirked.

"Very funny, don't forget I know what _kryptonite_ is now Mister," she teased as she looked down, feeling the air beneath them and the clouds surrounding them. "Oh my God Smallville, this is so amazing. When did this happen? Is it a new power?"

"Actually I think I could _always_ do it," Clark confessed. "I just wasn't' motivated enough to try and I had this thing with heights."

Lois laughed out loud before realizing he wasn't joking. "You're _not_ kidding?" she asked astonished when she saw the serious expression on his face.

"Hey, everyone has a phobia okay," he replied slightly miffed. "Mine just happened to be heights."

"So I'm guessing you're over that now?" She teased.

"Slightly," Clark laughed with her, holding her close. "I've been wanting to show this to you for weeks. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to fly at all."

"What do you mean?" Lois looked at him, thinking it odd that surrounded by clouds, the moon and the unblemished stars in the sky, all she could see were the dancing flecks of gold in his blue eyes.

"When I thought Zod was going to reach you first, I couldn't think of anything else but to get to you as quickly as possible. That's when I learned to fly Lois," he confessed. "For you, I had to."

"Jeez Smallville," Lois blinked, her eyes misting over in emotion. "You really know how to hit a girl where she lives don't you? I think making someone fly has to be the nicest compliment I ever got."

"I wouldn't fly for anyone else Lois," he said smiling. "And I'll never want to fly with anyone else but you."

Leaning forward, Clark Kent capture Lois Lane's lips in a tender kiss, beneath the stars and surrounded by twilight, flying above the clouds like they were always to supposed to.


End file.
